The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

My predawn exhaustion caused me to miss the freeway exit and my goal of being at the Teal Lakes at dawn, thanks to a detour through Connell. My tardiness was irrelevant, however. The vibrant sunrise I had hoped for never transpired, but a brief period of blood-orange horizon presented over the rim of South Teal Lake. It was colder in the scablands than anywhere else that morning. Steam rose and drifted over the lake's surface while waterfowl silhouettes floated delicately along the shoreline reeds.

As the sun rose, an odd pair of domesticated ducks waddled up from the lake. The large drake...