Okanogan Highlands

Daily Note

Every day, a photograph, a poem. The photo for today is from August 2, 2019 near Keller Ferry showing Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. We spend a lot of time roaming the edges of the Columbia– along the river in the Okanogan Highlands north of it.

It’s an amazing contrast to the wheat fields that fill the horizon just to the south of this photo. You can see the hills of the highlands in the distance:

The day of the highlands photo was hot and the sky beginning to fill with smoke from a fire near Keller. Yet that scene of the river, the reservoir behind Grand Coulee Dam, is striking as the river winds through the reaching fingers of the highlands, with its deep and steep valleys. It is the highlands I consider today– from wheat fields to forests and meadows, rugged terrain, and endless views.

When driving through the highlands, with no one in sight for miles and miles, pull over and listen to the song of the birds accompanied by the hum of the breeze through the massive Ponderosa Pines. You will feel small, but honored to have known nature this way.

And so a poem of the highlands…

Poetry

Okanogan Highlands

wheat fields roll into hills,
highlands of rounded peaks,
higher than a mile,
with deep, steep valleys,
a rugged terrain
leaving the shrub-steppe
for forests and meadows,
cougars, bears, and wolves,
mule deer and moose,
Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir,
Western larch and cottonwood,
black capped chickadees, magpies,
hidden lakes, serene views,
bounded by the Columbia
on the south, a blue ribbon
zig-zagging through the reaching
fingers of a land formed, eroded,
mined, grazed, flooded, and burned
and always blooming forth, giving
sustenance to those willing to traverse
the jagged nature of its ancient foundation.

Sheri Edwards
02.22.24 053.365.24
Poetry/Photography
Photo: August 2, 2019
Near Keller Ferry

#smallpoems #clmooc  #poetry24 #OkanoganHighlands #columbiariver #lakerooseveltnationalrecreationarea