Kennewick, WA to Missoula, MT

We had a long but beautiful drive today.  We decided to continue on the backroads, which took us through some gorgeous and varied terrain - much better than what we would have seen from I-90.  First, we traveled through the rest of southeastern Washington, which continued to be scrub-steppe.  Because of modern irrigation, the scrub-steppe surrounds beautifully fertile fields.  We saw quite a few vineyards, wheat, apple orchards, and crops we couldn't identify.  We also drove through several very cute towns such as Walla Walla and Pomroy.  Near the Idaho border, the scrub-steppe got more mountainous as we headed along the north border of the Blue Mountains.  These bare mountains were unlike the densely forested mountains of western Washington.  I have never seen a state with such varied terrain, but that is probably only because I come from the land of tiny states.

Blue Mountains near the WA/ID border

Heading to Idaho

Once past the Blue Mountains, we went on to Idaho.  Our time in Idaho was quite enjoyable because we almost never were not in a state or national forest.  We started by driving along the north border of Winchester Lake State Park.  This area very quickly turned more forested but not densely forested.  The hills there were almost identical to those desert hills of eastern Washington, but with smatterings of evergreen trees.  We stopped in Orofino for lunch.  Orofino is interesting mostly because Lewis and Clark stopped near there to make dug-out canoes.  Their high school mascot is the Maniacs because of the nearby state hospital (obviously they don't worry too much about political correctness).  They are also apparently very concerned about pedestrian safety because they have little orange flags at the start of crosswalks the idea being the pedestrian picks up the flags and walks across the street with them for higher visibility.  The only person we saw crossing the street did not pick up a flag.  After Orofino, we drove through Clearwater National forest to the Montana border.  This area was much more densely forested.  It is also the trail taken by Lewis and Clark's expedition.  Almost the entire day, we were driving through forest along the Clearwater River then the Lochsa River, which was a beautiful way to travel.

Clearwater River near Orofino, Idaho            

Eventually, we climbed the Lolo Pass where we passed into Montana then found our way to Missoula where we will spend the night.  A nice surprise was our hotel's two giant indoor water slides.  Missoula is quite pleasant - totally surrounded by mountains of the scrubby desert variety - and we will hopefully do more exploring of Missoula tomorrow.