As we parked the pick-up at the bottom of the hill, Mike remarked that there was a geocache at that spot -- one he had tried repeatedly to find. Although we weren't geocaching per se, he suggested I help him look. "Oh no, it's a clever hide," he said, as I looked in obvious spots on a chain link fence. "People who have found it have called the owner for hints." Then he dropped to his haunches and picked up something just inside the fence, and it proved to be the cache. Here's a picture of him -- all smiles.
By the time we crossed the road, a county worker was placing a "closed" sign on the levee pathway. "That just means bikes," said Mike; "it surely couldn't mean us." The worker pointed out that the levee was underwater "over there," pointing in one direction, and "over there," pointing in the other, meaning the path was unusable.
We checked it out anyway -- to the left -- then to the right. But since we could only go so far, we got back in the pick-up and drove south toward Asotin, probably a quarter of a mile. We could see the levee was under water that whole distance.
Again, a sign indicated the path was closed, but we ignored it and continued to explore. The river was very high, very swift. We couldn't go far to the north. Nellie waded in and discovering the water to be a bit deep, simply gave up and swam. She seemed to find the whole experience rather exciting and enjoyed poking around in the rocks and bushes as well as sniffing the river. Seeing that there was an open stretch of path to the south, we headed off toward Asotin.
Here's a view across the Snake River to Hells Gate State Park on the Idaho side. You can see the beach is completely under water. 
The river was obviously still rising. And although we did "walk on water," so to speak, in several spots, when we reached this point (photo right), we agreed there was no point in going farther. We could see another long stretch of path was under water. KW
