Above, Upon, and Below the Mackay Reservoir

I went for a ride above the reservoir today after church.  Just a ways from the reservoir, I noticed the Battle Ground Cemetery sign along the highway.  I'd forgotten about the old cemetery so I decided to take the dirt road and see what it was like.

I only drove about 1/8 to 1/4 mile before coming to the cemetery.  My first thought was...I don't see any headstones so I got out of the car to take a closer look.

 

 There was a monument just inside the gate stating how Jesse McCaleb was killed by Indians near this spot in 1878 and later the following pioneers were buried here, and it lists all those who were buried there along with Jesse McCaleb.

I walked through the cemetery, only finding 3 or 4 stone markers with sticks tied together to resemble crosses where some of those people had been buried.

After leaving the cemetery, I headed up the road and turned off at the fish hatchery road.  It is starting to green up along the roads and the sky was a gorgeous blue. 

I would have gone further but just as I turned a corner, I saw that I was going to come head-on with some men herding cattle so I turned around and headed back towards home.

I went out across the reservoir dam to get a picture to show you how much water there is.  As you can see in these next two pictures, the reservoir is really full.

I went below the dam to see if there was any water coming out of the pipes but there was hardly any.

But, there was quite a bit of water coming from the overflow/spillway.

On my way back to the highway, I noticed these sagebrush that were actually pretty tall.

Upon closer observation, I noticed that the sagebrush had these little nodules on them.  I don't know if they are little nests for some type of bug, or what....interesting, though.