Harnessing the wind at Wild Horse

A long-held wish to visit the wind farm finally turns into a wind-chill reality

- LINDA REID

Something about those other-worldly wind turbines that dot the landscape has always fascinated me.

In our travels across Eastern Washington (and beyond), my husband Ken and I have always shared this preoccupation with wind farms whenever we see them, especially when they are turning in their hypnotizing rotations, like not-quite-synchronized, 3-winged, prehistoric birds.

We watch them on the distant hillsides coming off the southwest side of Blewett Pass. We have encountered them in the Blue Mountains of southeast Washington where they are planted in the wheat lands, or in pastures where flocks of wild turkeys gather.

The largest, most impressive cluster of wind turbines we have ever seen was in the California desert, coming into Palm Springs from the west.

However, our favorite view of these modern windmills is from the Wild Horses Monument Scenic Viewpoint off westbound I-90 just east of the bridge across the Columbia at Vantage.

Whenever we stop at this viewpoint, we repeat the following dialog: Ken, “I would love to take a tour of that wind farm.” Linda, “We should do that sometime.” Ken, “I’m going to call and look into it.” Linda, “I know they give tours. Mary and Dan took one years ago.”

Then we get back in the car and that is that.

But last fall he actually called the Renewable Energy Center at Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility and we managed to get there for the last tour of the season, on Oct. 31.