This underwhelming Sykes leaves for the moment his passion for grand landscapes, while tending to one of his frequent motifs, the winding road. Typically, Horace Sykes did not leave a caption nor clues nor cross-references. This slide did not appear in order neatly next to another and another that are similar and so also revealing. So far at least it stands alone. And so does that horizon. Is there another directly beyond it or does the road wind downward into a deep valley? I'll imagine, at least, that he is reaching the summit of Colockum Pass, the rough pioneer wagon road that still crosses the Saddle Mountains between Ellensburg and Wenatchee. On the other side of the horizon we might see the Columbia River near Crescent Bar. Yes, that is unlikely. I have not yet completed looking through the boxes of Skypes slides from the 1940s and early 1950s and confess that the old teamster's pass would be a natural subject for Sykes and so I hold hope of finding him up there. And up there it certainly is at 5383 feet, which makes it easily one of the highest passes in the state - much higher than the 3022 feet at Snoqualmie and the 4056 at Stevens and closer to the 5477 feet of Sherman Pass in the Okanogan between Republic and Kettle Falls on the Columbia.
