Hood Park, a peaceful interlude
We arrived at the park about 1:00 on Sunday after a beautiful drive through the Washington fruit country. It is absolutely amazing how many fruit trees are growing in this region. Many of the orchards are labeled by the road so you know what varieties they are growing: fugi, honey crisp, pink ladies, cherries, bartlett pears, bosc pears, the list goes on and on. The sad thing is that many of the orchards are being cut down for vineyards. We passed one orchard with several acres of apple trees cut down and lying dead.
Hood Park is an Army Corps of Engineers park. It is situated on the banks of the Snake River only a short distance from where it empties into the Columbia. The Lewis and Clark Trail passes through the park, they camped at the mouth of the Snake where Sacajawea State Park is located. It is a beautiful park, covering the rolling hillside, with mature shade trees in abundance. An ideal place to camp.
We did attempt to do a little sightseeing but came up empty on both. We noticed that the Hanford Site, part of the Manhattan Project, now has a visitors’ center. We hoped to visit only to find they only have 2 tours per day. This part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park has only been in operation since November 2015 so it is not fully operational. Still, we had an interesting chat with the ranger at the tour office and then with a lady selling souvenirs down the street. Both were very knowledgeable about the Hanford Site. The other two parts of the National Park are located at Los Alamos, NM and Oak Ridge, TN.
For more info go to https://www.nps.gov/mapr/index.htm
We then tried to visit a restored Carousel located in nearby Kennewick. It was closed. Oh well back to our campground and our puppies.
August 2nd, 2016