Yakima Walk

Yakima Valley's Rattlesnake Hills (Washington) has just been granted AVA status, which is very cool, indeed. Actually a hot place, but cool wines.

We were there in '03, having decided to turn a trip to Seattle into an extended tour of Yakima Valley and Walla Walla wineries. While the wines of Walla Walla were the real knockouts, I developed a healthy respect for many Yakima area wines, such as Claar Cellars. And, we had a wonderful picnic lunch at Silver Lake, an experience that rivaled many Napa wineries.

One of the joys of walking the wine, in addition to stumbling across great wines, is the odd and unusual things you see along the way. Check out one of the cool sites we saw in Zillah, heart of the Rattlesnake Hills AVA. Seems a local with a profound sense of disgust and a great sense of humor decided to make his own statement about the Harding adminstration's Teapot Dome scandal. Hence, the Teapot Dome gas station was born in 1922.