HANFORD, Wash.
HANFORD, Wash. A platoon of double-crested cormorants took flight from the eastern shore of the Columbia River, skimming the sun-sparkled surface as two slender white egrets stood in the nearby shallows, hunting small fish hiding in the reeds.
Twenty kayakers, mostly tourists from the Pacific Northwest, paddled along, letting the steady current do most of the work. They coasted past mule deer grazing on the shore, coyotes stalking the sandy beaches and cliff swallows buzzing the nearby white bluffs.
But the main attraction was on the western shore: several bland, industrial-gray structures and towering smokestacks, a collection of buildings that gave birth to America’s Atomic Age.
Top 25 places to see and experience in Washington before you die
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Mt. Constitution on Orcas Island (not on NYT list), the highest point in San Juan Islands, part of 5,000-acre Moran State Park. Accessible by road or trail, the summit offers vistas of the San Juans, Mt. Baker, and distant Coast Range and Tantalus Mountains in British Columbia. (Robin Layton/Seattle P-I)Robin Layton/Seattle P-IShow MoreShow Less
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Olympic Peninsula, Olympic National Park, Hoh River Rain Forest, Roosevelt Elk At River. (Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty ImagesShow MoreShow Less
TravelAwaits
Apr.30.2021
Richland, Washington, is one of the three cities that comprise the Tri-Cities (with Kennewick and Pasco completing the triangle). It has long been a natural spot for human settlements, with the Wanapum, Walla Walla, and Yakama tribes fishing for salmon here. The town was named after Nelson Rich and incorporated in 1910. In 1943, the population swelled when the Hanford Site was established as part of the Manhattan Project, the secret effort to build an atomic bomb. The area is known for its great outdoor activities due to the average of 300 gorgeous sunny days a year. Get out and hike or enjoy a watersport. Bike along the Columbia River on a scenic loop. You’ll want to get plenty of exercise in so you can enjoy guilt-free dining at the many awesome farm-to-table restaurants and stellar bakeries.
After fireballs streaked across sky, space-junk sleuths got busy and hit the jackpot in Washington By Dominic Gates, , The Seattle Times (TNS),
Published: April 22, 2021, 8:25pm
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People across the Pacific Northwest were awed on the evening of March 25 by an otherworldly formation of fireballs that streaked across the heavens, causing a social media sensation. Astronomers promptly demystified it as debris from a falling SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Though such wayward rockets generally burn up in the atmosphere, this time substantial chunks fell to earth in Eastern Washington. At least one came uncomfortably close to hitting people.
Yet neither SpaceX nor the various federal agencies with some role in tracking space junk the Federal Aviation Administration, NASA, and the U.S. Space Force investigated what happened on the ground.