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| Scenic Drive | 400.00 Miles |
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| | Scenic Drive | 400.00 Miles | | | |
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| no partners | | With my Sis and her Hubby back home from Yellowstone, it was time for me to see some of the PNW for the first time ever. I decided not to do any Cascades or Coastal stuff, those are trips that are all unto themselves. I had about 15 days. I used my sister's place as an intermediate type base camp for my gear, so I only needed to take what I wanted for a particular trip until I left for good. I wanted to see the Palouse region and it just felt logical since I was already east of the Cascades. But I wanted to make it quick, since I had picked out a bigger, more complex area to spend a lot of my time. So I did a quick overnight. When I say quick, it was two full days pretty much, stopping along the way. If I do it again, I would do 3 days, because there was so much I didn't get a chance to explore. But for this trip, I did a pretty big loop, going into the area at Sprague Lake, heading for Steptoe Butte State Park Heritage Site. From there, I would head south and west through Colfax, cross the Snake River, go west some more to a campground right on the Snake. From there, it would be a somewhat short drive to Palouse Falls and then back to my sister's. This Scenic Drive triplog and Photoset will only encompass the first day. I actually did a tiny bit of hiking the second day, so those will be separate triplogs.
It was cold, windy and overcast when I left the ranch and I was kind of hoping to get rained on because my truck was pretty dirty. But I ended up chasing the rain all the way to Steptoe before I kind of caught it. And once on the Butte, 99% of the rain went around the formation, so all I got was spit on occasionally. But the wind. Because of the storms and constantly changing light through the clouds, I stayed on the Butte for over 3 hours with 60 mph winds. Photography was difficult, the air quality down below was pretty poor at times. But it was worth it and when I finally left, the sun was prevailing.
Drove through some pretty areas and Colfax was pretty scenic going through. Made my way through more scenic farmland and finally arrived to my overnight spot on the river with an hour or so of daylight to spare. Pretty nice little campground and the price was right. Wandered around for a bit and then collapsed in the camper.
Never thought I would make a patch of farmland a destination, but I knew it would be cool, just from it's reputation. It was certainly worth the trip and I still had another day to see more. If I'm ever in Eastern Washington for another stint, might make a return trip here and allow just a bit more time. |
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| Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty & well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, totally worn out & proclaiming, "Wow What a Ride!" |
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