From the Passenger Seat
In all of my adult years, every trip I have made through Washington State on I-90 has either been after dark, or when I am driving — or both. However, when Amoeba and I traveled to Spokane last week, he drove and I got to sight see, and I saw some sights I had never seen before.
This is the Wild Horses Monument. It overlooks the Columbia River near Vantage, WA. I saw it for the first time on this trip. Amoeba was driving up the grade after we’d crossed the bridge and I saw two people standing on the side of the barren hill and staring up. I thought, “What on earth …” and followed their line of vision.
When I saw the monument I got all excited and pointed it out to Amoeba — who knew it was there and couldn’t believe that I didn’t. Of course he stopped so I could photograph it. The monument is a 200-foot line of life-sized charging horses titled, Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies. It was created 1989 by David Govedare of Chewelah, Washington for Washington State’s Centennial Celebration. The 1 inch thick steel ponies symbolically depict the Great Spirit releasing a herd of wild horses on a ridge above the Columbia River’s Wanapum Lake.
22 Comments
How beauitful! I love the sense of movement in the sculptures.
Yeah, that was really well done.
And of course, in a photograph it looks even more realistic because you expect objects that would normally be moving to be frozen in time. I certainly thought that you caught a view of a herd. It must have been an awesome sight. 🙂
It is beautiful,
I love it! And yes, it is very difficult to see while driving, but the passengers sure get a wonderful view. I can hardly wait to show it to my youngest son.
That’s really nice. Looks like real horses!
From that distance, it looks real. Amazing.
Gorgeous monument… gorgeous photo.
Beautiful! I haven’t seen those horses since I was a kid… I guess we must always take a different route to Eastern WA these days!
Absolutely gorgeous and unbelievable!!! I have never seen this type of monument. But I bet a lot of people pass by without noticing it.
At first I thought these were real wild horses!! And then I thought, wow Quilly is sooooo lucky to have captured this amazing sight. But, then I read on and realized the horses are statues. What a neat monument to see.
How cool! I love making new discoveries like that… even if the rest of the world DOES know it’s there!
even in a small photo this looks impressive! would love to see it on the spot
What a wonderful monument – the horses look so lifelike!
i thought they were real!
That’s beautiful! I’m always the driver, too, so I never get to see anything but tail lights.
Wow, what an incredible piece of art.
So stunning! This spot actually is on my “to visit” list.
I thought they were real — that’s some monument!
That must be one heck of a sight, wow!
The first time I saw it I thought they were real horses! There is a specific angle when driving by where the lead horse actually looks like it’s jumping off the cliff …ever since we bought our Eastern Wa property I’ve had a little fantasy of making my own little wild horses art at one of our rocky outcroppings. Hey…a girl can dream.
I’ve heard of the monument for years but I guess I never looked it up to see what it looked like. I had no idea it was this grand. Gotta put it on my vacation bucket list.
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