Rustic Lens
Dam overflow tube

My Latest Dam Adventure Blog – Owyhee Dam, Eastern Oregon

So….I couldn’t resist the “Dad Joke” in the title.  Sorry about that, not really.  I’ve been looking forward to using that joke since I went to Owyhee dam.  I don’t normally swear, but

ask my kids and they will tell you that I have tortured them with that joke every time we passed a dam since I saw the Beavis and Butthead movie.  Of course, I also offer to take them on a dam tour, get them a dam hot dog and maybe even some dam souvenirs.  Ok, enough with the dam jokes already.  Oh, just one more.  Here it comes!  Did you happen to see the huge dam hole that the overflow water goes down in my banner picture up there? Well, here’s another shot of it.

dam overflow vortex
A 60-foot hole in the reservoir.

It just so happened that on a day I was already planning on going down to Payette, that I saw this blog about this massive drain hole at the Only In Idaho blog.  I had no idea that this was even down there, but I googled it and saw that it wasn’t far from Payette.  This meant I absolutely had to go see it.  I have never seen one of these huge drain holes before this year.  There has been a lot of media showing all the spring run-off water from various dams across the country and I saw one of these in a picture at some point.  It looked really cool and made me want to go see one.  I am really glad that I went.  It was snowing when I left home, but the weather cleared up to be a beautiful day driving through the Owyhee Canyonlands.

road in a canyon
Owyhee Canyonlands road.

I discovered some amazing scenery on the way to the dam.  The landscape changes from rural farming to this awesome and rugged desert canyonland within a couple turns.

The Owyhee canyonlands
The gorgeous light helped to showcase the landscape.

Around another corner, I found this cool tunnel!

An old rugged tunnel.
One lane tunnel on the way.

I made a little video of the various things I saw, including some drone footage.

Here is some more information on The Owyhee Canyonlands .

As always, you can find information about downloads or prints of any of my images by visiting my galleries. Also, there are a lot more images! Click Here!

Soon, I may have to visit Brownlee dam or Dworshak dam and get some pics of those.  Hey, if you like my dam pictures, please comment and share this post to let me know!

Ok, one more parting image.  I had to drive home really late and got there at 2:30am.  The good thing about this is that I was able to get this cool night shot of the Time Zone Bridge north of Riggins, Idaho.

Time zone bridge riggins, idaho
Where the time jumps an hour when you jump the Salmon river.

 

 

Evan Jones

I am a landscape and travel photographer who is drawn to old and rusty stuff as well as beautiful landscapes. I like to explore the backroads of the Northwest United States and anywhere else I can get to. My blog is at www.rusticlens.com

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