Got to see a few elk clearly with my glasses today on the same route. No antlers since they shed them this time of year, as I've come to learn. Still very pretty.
The best part of this trip was the view coming home. The Columbia river valley to our left with the highway rising high over the valley in many spots. Seeing the river, with the Selkirk Mountain Range (part of the Rockies) across the river and their snow-covered peaks towering over the mountainside with the dark green of the evergreens interspersed with the bright green of newly leafed deciduous trees was breathtaking. The lighting was perfect. Along the way to our right were fields and fields full of newly bloomed dandelions. Carpets of bright yellow, some of which were people's "lawn". Good to see they were letting them grow unfettered.
Nice change after making the trip many times with either snow-covered landscape or the dull brown left after the melt. Saw a couple of HUGE mule deer too.
I am slowly learning the topography for this area, but it is so varied that it will take a while.