Fog on Our Mountain

fog around a mountain of sand 230 feet tall in Coulee Dam WA

Daily Note

Every day, a photograph, a poem.

One of my grandson’s is learning Japanese by living in Japan. When we drove down the hill beside Grand Coulee Dam towards home, we enjoyed a common site: the fog around the mountain of sand in Coulee Dam. I laughed and thought it was Mt. Fuji of Coulee Dam. I snapped the photo to send that as text to Ben, our grandson.

The sand is left over from building Grand Coulee Dam. It was the aggregate used with the sand to make cement. We’re about a mile away here. The sand pile is 230 feet tall and twelve million cubic yards!

I found a photo of the sand hill on Flickr by Robert Ashworth. Read his caption below his picture here:

Coulee City at base of dam has large pile of sand and gravel made during excavations for the dam — Robert Ashworth,s Caption: A friend of mine, in Bellingham, wanted me to bring back a reminder of the trip. I picked up a few pebbles from this giant pile. Tour guide at Grand Coulee Dam suggested collecting a few pebbles during her slightly humorous spiel. She said the pile is near the high school and athletes at the school are sometimes expected to jog, or walk up the pile if they get into trouble with the teacher. One can help them reduce the size of the pile they have to climb. It will take a while.

Now the story must true because look at that path up the face of the sand hill. Ugh, that would be a tough run!

And so, a poem about our mountain:

Poetry

Fog on Our Mountain

Yes we have a mountain
12 million cubic yards
230 foot tall
pile of sand
for building Grand Coulee Dam

Yes we have a mountain
and when the warm air cools
over the cooler river
fog surrounds our mountain—
Mount Fuji of Coulee Dam!
Sheri Edwards
01.25.24 025.365.24
Poetry/Photography