Awaken to one of the bluest skies ever seen in the fair-to-cloudy state of Washington -- so, with Tom and work; and Claire, Tisha, and Harriet at the hard work of shopping -- after the day's ablutions, and grading a few papers,
reverse
course
down
12
and
730 to Wallula Gap to climb the
Twin
Sisters,
via
the
southern
saddle and
south slope,
with views west to the Columbia and east into the Miniature Scablands, complete with ranch, cliffs, and sand dunes.
Reaching the hole-in-the-wall, so to speak,
the views
are,
impressive,
if
dangerous,
and a
reasonably hasty
path is
beaten back
down the
bushy slopes.
Back in the car,
further south to
Juniper Canyon below the Oregon border,
another short hike is taken upslope to where plunkers are doing their thing, probably inappropriately within a
nature preserve.
Enough of this,
there's
time
to
make
the
way
back
north
to
Old
Route
12,
where the Whitman Mission is still open until the dark of night. Racing through the dusk, the Great Grave
and
Monument
Hill
are reached in short order,
followed by a more leisurely circuit down the
southeast slope to the sidebranch of the
Oregon
Trail that
passed through
here,
circling
around
the
actual
building
site in
the floodplain
of the
Walla Walla.
A poignant story, with much to ponder upon return, the light no longer glimmering for an instant.
The day's soundtrack is --
Francis Poulenc...
Double Piano Concerto
Organ Concerto
Four Penitential Motets
Gloria
