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I may soon create some entries on Worldisround with pictures from my trip:

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Highlights

Washington Wheat Fields

Thursday July 10 -

Seattle to Pullman, and then across the Idaho border to spend the night in Moscow.  I figure if I'm going to call this my Idaho trip, I ought to spend a couple nights in the state.  Other than a somewhat disappointing side trip to check out Washington's Potholes State Park, I took a rather direct route, stopping for gas and some wheat field photos.  With its wide expanses of wheat fields, patches of sage, stabilized sand dunes, coulees and basalt buttes, the high desert scenery of eastern Washington is quite a contrast to the rugged Cascades, the Olympics and the lush green forests of western Washington.  It's like two different states, a thought that extends to politics and culture, too - the Cascade "Curtain" being the dividing line.

Potholes State Park is the site of a sand dunes field that was substantially put under water with the construction of a dam.  With the rising water, several of the dips between dunes filled with water, creating a landscape of small pothole size lakes and ponds.  But there didn't appear to be an obvious way to access and sightsee in that area, and thus the somewhat disappointing visit.

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Idaho Sightseeing

Friday July 11 -

I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew with my trip plans.  Shortly after leaving Moscow I saw a sign that indicated that it was just over 300 miles to Boise.  It didn't look at all like that on the map, but that was an indication of the winding mountain road that I would sometimes find myself on.  I also came across a handful of Nez Perce National Historical Park sites during the first half of my drive, and I couldn't resist stopping to check those out, especially once I started scaling back my plans for when I got to Boise.  

My route was basically south on US95 and then south on Idaho 55.  My first stop was the highway overlook at Lewiston.  Lewiston is more than 400 miles from the ocean, but the Columbia and Snake Rivers are navigable up to this point, so the town is Idaho's only seaport.

After leaving Lewiston, Highway 95 enters the Nez Perce Reservation, which is different from the Colville Reservation in Washington State, which is also a Nez Perce Reservation.  Some Nez Perce bands accepted a treaty that took away much of the tribe's lands; others made a break for it, fighting a number of battles with the U.S. military as they attempted to make their way to Canada.  Last fall's visit to Big Hole National Battlefield covered one of the sites.  There is a concentration of sites along Hwy 12 and Hwy 95 in this part of Idaho, some little more than overlooks and roadside signs, others more complete.  I spent about an hour at the Spalding site, home to the Nez Perce and their ancestors for 11,000 years, and the site of a mission church established to bring Christianity to the natives.  An Indian agency office brought more settlers and led to the development of a town, which gradually faded after the agency office moved.  The last business, Watson Merchandise Store, closed in 1964.  Little remains of the town except for some cemeteries and the park headquarters.  Among the ten sites I visited was the White Bird Battlefield site, where on June 17, 1877, the first battle between the Nez Perce and the U.S. Army was fought.  The Nez Perce won this battle, but they knew that the Army would ramp up its efforts as a result.  The Nez Perce bands involved began making their way across Idaho and Montana towards Canada.  Three months later, the U.S. Army won the war at the Bear Paw battlefield site in northern Montana, just 40 miles from the U.S.-Canadian border.

The one major stop, several minor stops and the loss of an hour as I crossed into the Mountain Time Zone, added up enough that in spite of my early stop I didn't reach downtown Boise until 4:45PM.  So I chopped out all of my Boise area plans for today other than a downtown photo walk, and then I got dinner downtown before heading to my hotel.

An uneventful evening capped off by a very slow night at the Emerald City Club.  Turns out that the owner just died, so some sort of shindig was planned for tomorrow night.  If the limited crowds I saw last fall and again tonight are any indication, it's probably time to shut down the place.  I was in bed by midnight.

Owyhee Country

Saturday July 12 -

The name Owyhee is an early spelling for Hawaii, which seems like an odd place name to find in southwest Idaho.  But back in 1820, a group of men in the employ of the North West Company came to explore the area and do some trapping.  About a third of the men were from Hawaii a.k.a. the Sandwich Islands.  Three of these men were assigned to do some trapping along a regional river, where they were killed by some local Indians.  That's how Owyhee became associated with this region.

Today Owyhee is the name of the southwesternmost county in Idaho, a small town just across the border in Nevada, and a river system whose branches cover parts of southeastern Oregon, northern Nevada and southwestern Idaho.  In fact the river has carved some extensive canyons in the region, which the BLM refers to as the Owyhee Canyonlands.  I saw some of that today as I visited sites in southwestern Idaho and northern Nevada as I took the scenic route from Boise to Winnemucca, NV.

I was up early, and after breakfast I hit the road for Mountain Home, Idaho, where I left the interstate and headed towards the small town of Bruneau, ID, a wide spot along the road just across the Snake River in Owyhee County.  It's hard to believe, but this was my third visit to Bruneau.  The first time was just for the county swing as I was finishing up Idaho's counties several years ago.  Last year I returned, going a bit out of my way with my digital camera as I worked my way across southern Idaho on a day spent going from Pocatello to Boise.  It was on that trip that I noted a couple sites in the Bruneau area that I decided that I'd check out on some Boise trip.  Which turned out to be this trip.

Bruneau Dunes State Park is a smallish sand dunes field, especially when compared to Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado.  But what it lacks in coverage, it makes up in height.  The two most prominent dunes only cover about 600 acres, but one of them is the largest single structured sand dune in North America, rising some 470 feet above the surrounding desert.  Prevailing winds from the southeast and northwest keep the dunes from drifting.  I checked out the display at the visitor center and then went out to the dunes for some pictures.  I only climbed one of the small dunes; I've climbed the dunes in Colorado a couple times now, and figured I didn't need to do that again.

The Owyhee Canyonlands area is located to the south and east of Bruneau.  A road that heads 18 miles to the southeast eventually reaches the Bruneau Canyon Overlook, which provides excellent views of Bruneau Canyon and the area known as Five Mile Rapids.  It only provided a taste of the Owyhee Canyonlands area, but it was well worth the drive.

Back in Bruneau I picked up some snacks for the drive south to Elko, NV.  Just west of Bruneau, Highway 51 heads south to the Nevada border, at which point the road turns into Highway 255.  Although the map suggests that there are a handful of small towns along this route, some are little more than wide spots along the highway, and none of them had visitor services.  There was a store and gas station just across the Nevada border, but I skipped that thinking I'd pick up some stuff at one of the two upcoming towns.  Mountain City looked like it should have a couple stores for such things, but it turned out that they were closed.  A sign at the visitor center indicated that the nearest store heading back north was 17 miles away, the one at the border that I had skipped.  Heading south I had to go all the way to Elko.

The scenery was pretty but not spectacular.  Hills covered with high desert plants, for the most part.  Interesting rock outcroppings reminded me of City of Rocks, a national preserve in southern Idaho well to the east of here.  I did make a number of photo stops, but it was more out of a sense of obligation - and my need to do something to wake me up a bit - rather than due to anything really worth photographing.  Still, I enjoyed the drive as I do most drives that cover parts of the country that I hadn't been on before.

The scenery became more drab the further south I got, although that was helped by a growing haziness in the sky.  The scenery between Elko and Winnemucca was downright dull, but that was okay as I was ready for the drive to end.

I checked into a hotel in downtown Winnemucca and then took a photo walk around the city.  I like the look of the place, with its kind of 1960s cheesy roadside vibe, kind of what one finds along the old Route 66 areas that have managed to survive the coming of the interstate highways.  I got a good steak dinner at one of the local casinos and then gambled away a few bucks before returning to the hotel.  I thought about heading out, but I was plenty tired and had an early start planned for Sunday.

Southeastern Oregon

Sunday July 13 -

Today may have been my longest drive day of the trip, and for all the driving I only had a couple targeted sightseeing stops.  And yet, it was another good day.

I began the day heading north out of Winnemucca to Denio, a 101-mile drive that I've done before.  And it was about as dull a drive from a scenery standpoint as I remembered.

But on that last trip, once I reached Oregon I hit a stretch of scenery made up of massive geological steps, huge blocks of earth shoved up or dropped down, creating block faults.  On that trip, I made my way to Abert Rim, the west-facing wall of one of these blocks.  It was near dark the first time I saw it back in 1996, so I knew I needed a daylight visit.  But in 1999 I was surprised to see how many of these gigantic steps there were.

For this trip I targeted Steens Mountain, another one of these steps, whose east-facing wall rises more than 5700 feet above the Alvord Desert.  In fact, Steens Mountain rises so high, that the road that approaches its summit is the highest elevation road in the Pacific Northwest states, and it wrings so much moisture out of the winds from the west that the Alvord Desert at its base to the east gets only 6 inches of rain per year on average, making it the driest area in Oregon.  In addition to the views of the Alvord Desert from the east rim, Steens Mountain also features some glacial gorges, including Little Blitzen Gorge and Kiger Gorge.  The view from the head of the Kiger Gorge, in particular, provides a textbook example of the classic U-shaped glacier-carved gorge.

There's actually a loop road that goes up and down to the Steens Mountain summit, but everything I read warned of problems for low clearance cars on the south branch of the loop, so I headed up to the East Rim and back sticking to just the north road.  Easy driving on a gravel road, pretty scenery eventually giving way to spectacular scenery, and lots of summer wildflowers in bloom.  All in all a very pretty drive, with outstanding views from the upper end of Kiger Gorge and from the East Rim.

After taking a snack break in Frenchglen, I headed to the Diamond Loop Scenic Drive.  Like Steens Mountain, I didn't take the full loop.  My route provided me with some views of the Malheur National Wildlife Reserve.  Then I reached the Diamond Craters Outstanding Natural Area, an area pockmarked with volcanic craters and covered with what was left of ancient lava flows.

Not far from that I checked out the Peter French Round Barn, an 1880s structure whose round shape made it easy to exercise and train the horses during the area's long winters.  It is reportedly the most photographed barn in all of Oregon.

From there it was a straightforward drive to Burns, where I picked up some pop, and then on to Bend, where I spent the night.  After four days I think I've had my fill of sagebrush-covered landscapes.

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Cascade Sights

Monday July 14 -

And finally the drive back home.  Bend is only a few hundred miles from Seattle, and I only made a couple sightseeing stops along the way, and yet I didn't get home until 7PM.  Of course, I took state highways and back roads for most of the route, at least until I got back to the Seattle metro area.  But it was a good day, a pretty drive and a nice way to end what was a good long weekend road trip.

I stopped at the Peter Skene Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint, which features up close views of a canyon carved by the Crooked River and more distant views of Oregon's Cascade volcanoes.  Just across the Columbia River at Maryhill, Washington, I checked out Stonehenge, a concrete reproduction of the one in England that serves as a war memorial for those from the area who died while serving in World War I.  Its location on a hillside above the Columbia River provided me with great views of the eastern end of the Columbia River Gorge and distant Mount Hood.

I headed north on US97 towards Yakima.  I should have been able to see Mount Adams along this route, but a forest fire near the distant mountain shrouded it in smoke.  I could see smoke billowing up, even from as far away as I was.

At Yakima I headed west to Mount Rainier National Park, my first visit there in a couple years.  I wanted to check out the Paradise area on the park's south side.  During a fantastic July visit there a few years ago I hiked through meadows that overflowed with wildfires with the mountain in the background of many of my photos.  We had a lot of snow this last winter, though, and there was still plenty on the ground at Paradise today.  In fact, the trails I hiked that fantastic July day were all under a bunch of snow.  (The Seattle Times reported on the Cascades' still-snow covered trails in the July 18 paper.)  So no hiking.  And not a lot of photos, as I already have a ton of photos of Mount Rainier.

From there it was the 2-hour drive back to Seattle.  My weekend getaway was over.

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Souvenirs

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