Wednesday July 3rd 2019

After a slow start this morning, I drove out to Horn Rapids Park on the Yakima River northwest of Richland Washington. It is a Benton County park with a boat launch, lots or trails and a small campground. If I’d known about this campground earlier, I would have considered it a better destination than my current location. The campground has 22 water and electric sites avilable on a first come first served basis. Today there were only three sites occupied.

I spent a little over an hour walking some of the trails in the trees along the river. Once I had to move into the open area away from the river, the direct sun made the hiking less comfortable. It only got up into the high eighties which is a little low for this time of year in this area, but I only had one bottle of water with me. I needed to be better prepared for a longer hike.

The walk along the river was fun. I saw lots of flying things from dragon flies to float planes. The wading birds were on the far bank of the river so it was hard to get good pictures. I’ve cropped a couple of long shots and included them in this blog post. I’m not sure what kind of fish are in the river. Nobody was fishing today, but I heard and saw a few fish jumping. It looks like a promising location.

At the campground this evening it isn’t as full, but it is noisier. Despite several new signs forbidding fireworks in the campground several loud bangs have gone off. Legal fireworks in the tri-cities area is a new thing this year. They could only start selling last Saturday and the restrictions on the types of legal fireworks are huge. Nothing that is launched into the air is legal.