From Coeur d'Alene, ID to Yakima, WA 
From Coeur d'Alene, ID to Yakima, WA
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I took my time getting ready and out of the hotel room today. My plan last night was to head only as far as Spokane, WA a distance of less than 100 miles. But in talking with the riders from Washington last night, I got my interest in coastal Washington and the Olympic Peninsula refreshed. So I've mapped out an alternate plan to get to Aberdeen, WA on the coast tomorrow night. Then north along the coast, around the Olympic Peninsula continuing to Seattle on Friday to meet Ron and Carole.
I'm lucky today in having another beautiful warm day. Finally on the road, I-90 is congested as it departs Coeur d'Alene and makes its way to Spokane. Spokane is a large city and has the traffic to prove that. It looks interesting enough that I seriously consider a drive around downtown and a look at the riverside site that was used for the World Exposition held there.
Until you travel to Washington, you don't realize that the state has two personalities. Western Washington is wet and green. Eastern Washington is dry and brown (or golden). The land on either side of the interstate is under cultivation in a wide variety of crops. There is one stretch where the farmers highlight the crop in each field with signs announcing the crop's name. It is rather interesting to identify the various crops by plant size, leafiness and color.
But it is also very dusty. I choke on a solid cloud of dust kicked up by a large truck in the farm just upwind of the interstate. You can taste it in your mouth. My eyes are watering. My nose, already suffering from the low humidity is further attacked. I notice a lot of dust devils twisting in the fields. Sometimes there are as many as ten visible in various directions. They twist and bobble. Some are short, dense and stout. Others are tall and less defined. They remind me of the dancing mops and buckets in the classic Disney animated film Fantasia.
I pull off at Sprague for lunch. A local burger restaurant called Viking Burgers seems like a good choice. The burger is good and solid. There are three older (maybe even elderly) women running the place. The fuss and accuse and complain in the kitchen. One is taking a break and keeps having to get up to admit fault or break up the discussion before it gets too heated.
The ride continues across the dry farmland for most of the next couple of hours. Then I-90 runs alongside the Columbia River for a while. There is a turn off that allows you to see the cliffs down to the river. It is a spectacular view.
View down river from the vista point. You can faintly see the highway crossing the river at the town called Vantage |
View up river from the vista point. Visible from this point are remnants of highways built in the 1920s and in the 1940s at lower levels of the palisades. |
After the vista point, I-90 makes a rapid descent down to the river level. A hard right hand turn and I'm on the bridge headed across the river. The ride back up the other side is great. The road twists and climbs in order to make it up over a series of high ridges. There isn't much traffic just some slow and fast moving semi trucks to provide some moving obstacles to get around.
It is really hot and dry. I've stopped at every rest stop to drink water and I still feel dehydrated. At Ellensburg, I turn onto I-82 to get to Yakima -- my intended stopping point. Between Ellensburg and Yakima is a high ridge of mountains. I-82 initially heads straight up over the mountains. On the other side, the landscape is even more bleak and more arid than the last couple of hundred miles. Frankly, it looks more desolate than most of the deserts in California with few if any plants in view.
Yakima finally comes into view. The Yakima Valley is renowned for apples and cherries. The valley is an oasis of green that is a welcome break from the rest of the day. I drive past the city on I-82 in search of a cluster of motels (they seem to cluster at one end of a city for some reason). Settled into my a Super 8, I do laundry after a quick dinner at Denny's.
Tomorrow: The trip over the mountains to Aberdeen on the coast.
Depart Coeur d'Alene Idaho heading west on Interstate 90.
Cross state line into Washington.
Continue on I-90 past Spokane to Ellensburg, WA.
At Ellensburg, transition onto Interstate 82 heading east.
Arrive Yakima, WA
(c) 2001 Thomas N. Engler Revision Date: 06/28/2001
