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| Abert Rim, OR |
With fresh oil and rotated tires, I headed north. The fastest way home would have been east on I-80, but I've always wanted to see southern and eastern Oregon and Washington, and I'd already seen central Nevada on the way in. North it was on US-395, which seems to be the main Great Basin north-south route.
One of the best surprises of the trip was just across the Oregon border where looming in the distance was the a great, shadowed escarpment. I'd never heard of this, but it was spectacular. The Abert rim is one of the highest escarpments in the US, and borders Lake Abert, a saline lake with a bountiful brine shrimp ecology. The sun was setting, the clouds dramatic, and I had it all to myself. This was some remote road. I saw barely 5 cars from the southern border to the northeast Blue Mountains that evening. Lots of pictures again.
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| Lake Abert, OR |
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| Snake River Canyon near Pullman, WA |
I'd never heard of the Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon, but I spent the night sleeping in the car at a National Forest campground there, and it was a fine drive the next day. Modest peaks of 5,000 feet clad in ponderosa and high valleys of hay and cattle. A nice, unnoticed (at least by me) corner of the country. I made the theme of this part of the trip western colleges and universities. I swung through La Grande, Oregon to see Eastern Oregon (not much to look at but a scenic valley), then north to drop into the Columbia River valley, then up the Walla Walla river to Walla Walla (following a semi loaded with crates shedding what seemed to be paper, I realized it was tons and tons of Walla Walla onions!) a prosperous and pretty town hosting Whitman College (an great liberal arts college where our niece Brynn attended).
Then north to Pullman, Washington to see Eastern Washington University by driving up another section of the Snake River Canyon. Couldn't believe it when I saw two moose in the middle of the road is this arid climate. Pullman is set in the Palouse - a region of steep, random hills of deep, fertile, windblown topsoil - there were gorgeous fields of wheat in colorful bands of different maturities wrapping the mounded slopes. Entering town was a banner advertising the National Lentil Festival (no kidding). The region is known for wheat and lentils. The university was scenically perched on the top of some of these steep hills, with many elevated walkways spanning the roads between buildings. Nice.
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| Washington State, Pullman |
I then drove the 8 miles to its sister city, Moscow, Idaho, home of the University of Idaho. Interestingly, as I headed east towards the mountains and left the Palouse, the terrain flattened, so that Moscow was much flatter, and the university more sprawling. The downtown had a couple interesting eateries, but I stopped at Gnosh, a new place that offered small samples of many foods, wine, and beers. I was driving so I skipped the drinks, but had a great dinner of one of each of their wonderful salads, with a side of plantain chips. The chef must have felt sorry for me eating all those greens and figured me for a lost vegetarian (they had lots of meat options), and sent out a delicious complimentary plate of still-hot deep fried chickpeas that were wonderful with my final salad. Great place to east if you stop in Moscow some time.
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| Gnosh, Moscow, ID |
I wanted to get home before Friday, and had driven I-90 many times, so I headed north at sunset along Coeur d'alene Lake - a beautiful drive. I hit I-90 at dark and drove till I was over the pass into Montana (an exciting stretch of road for an interstate), then spent the night in the car again at a truck pull-off along a roaring river nestled between the peaks of the Rockies. You could see the marks on the mountainside from the shores of the ancient glacial Lake Missoula, a giant lake that repeatedly filled and drained over 2,000 years, scarring large parts of northern Idaho and Washington.
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