Clearwater - Gregory S.Walsh Photography

In June 2019, I planned a trip to the Clearwater River area—north of Grangeville, south of Kamiah—to visit old friends at their ranch near the small town of Harpster. But by early May, work obligations back home on the Semiahmoo Peninsula forced me to postpone.

I tried again in 2020. Reservations were booked at the Sportsman Paradise Airbnb, dates were set. Then the pandemic hit, and those plans vanished too.

By 2021, the Delta variant threatened another cancellation. When I finally secured a booking, it wasn't until July 6th—peak heat season in Idaho. That summer brought record-breaking temperatures across the Pacific Northwest, including a brutal 116 degrees in Portland and 100 degrees at my own home near Birch Bay, Washington.

Still, I was determined. I had a new coffee table book of photography in mind, and I wasn't going to let another year slip by. So on July 5th, I set out at 6 a.m., driving through Seattle and across the Palouse of eastern Washington, stopping overnight in Moscow, Idaho, before arriving in Harpster the next day. I'd planned eight days of photography, golf, and time with old friends.

The heat had other ideas. Temperatures climbed from the low 90s into the high 90s, pushing most activity into the early morning hours. Then thunderstorms rolled through central Idaho, sparking wildfires from Lewiston to Missoula. Four days in, worn down by heat and smoke, I cut the trip short—promising myself I'd return in September, once cooler weather settled in.

That's how this project became two expeditions. The July trip captured rusted farm equipment and abandoned vehicles sinking into dry grass. The September trip focused on the people of the Clearwater region and the river itself. Along the way, in both directions, I photographed the Palouse—images I've woven throughout the book.

Rather than organize the photos by subject, I chose to let them unfold unpredictably—a portrait here, a rusted 1932 Dodge there, the churn of Clearwater whitewater further on. I hope you find as much joy paging through these images as I found capturing them.