Northwest Backroads

Backroad: the road less traveled......definitely not the freeway!
There is always an adventure over the next horizon. This past week, we decided to travel on some of the backroads of the state of Washington......and ended up not only on Washington backroads, but a few Idaho and Oregon backroads as well.

We left Camano Island, and drove to Colfax, Washington, where we stayed the first night. We stopped along the highway, and had a picnic in the wonderful warm evening air. (Oh how I miss the warm summer evenings of Eastern Oregon...)

The map below gives you an idea of where we traveled......... we saw a lot of country that we haven't seen before, and it was all beautiful. We sure put a lot of miles on the car this trip......and we had to have extra foam cushions on the seat of the car to endure sitting in it!

We got up at 3:15 on Monday morning, so we could drive to the top of Steptoe Butte. We found that we weren't the only ones who had that idea as well......there were at least 8 or 9 other cars....and they were all photographers! Oh the hours that you have to keep, if you want to get that perfect shot! But there was so much haze in the air, that it wasn't good for taking pictures. So we decided just to explore the area.........we found a lot of backroads.........and we met only one or two cars in a couple of hours.

The photo below I took just outside Colfax, looking south over the spring wheat fields. The Palouse area still amazes me with it's beauty and soft contours and textures.

We decided on the spur of the moment to drive down to Hell's Canyon, which is where the Snake River becomes the border to Oregon and Idaho. Our backroad took us south through Clarkston, Washington over the Lewiston/Wallowa Highway, arriving at Enterprise, Oregon. We then took another backroad, (which we were actually surprised to find it paved) crossing the Wallowa Mountains, and started toward the Idaho/Oregon border. Along the way, we found a viewpoint that looks out over Hell's Canyon; from this viewpoint, you get no idea of how deep and rugged this canyon really is.

This is a narrow curve where we stopped to take a photo of the beautiful red rock.

As we reached the Snake River in Hell's Canyon, we stopped and made ourselves a sandwich, and enjoyed the warm weather. (It was 87 degrees along the river!)

We were almost out of sunlight, because of the depth of the canyon walls, but Ron hurried to get a few shots taken before we were in complete shadow. The ruggedness of the canyon is quite amazing and beautiful. There is only a small window of time in the spring when the river canyon is beautiful and green. We lucked out.

The contrast between sunlight and shadow is really dramatic, to say the least.

The beautiful green of the grass really shows up when the sun is shining on it.

That night we drove all the way to Pendleton, through Halfway, Baker and LaGrande, Oregon. Halfway, is one of the most beautiful little towns I have ever seen......beautiful farmland, cattle, horses, and old barns. It was so peaceful. We were really wanting to stay and explore, but we needed to get back to Pendleton.

The next day, we took my mother on our adventures with us, but first we made a couple of special stops; one at the Skyview Cemetery just outside of Pendleton, to put some flowers on my dad's grave, as it was Memorial Day.

Then we stopped at Olney Cemetery in Pendleton to put some flowers on Ron's grandfather's grave.........it's a small world.

We decided drive south of Pendleton and look for something interesting to photography.......and our Camry still thinks it's a 4-wheel drive!

We found a very interesting old wooden fence around a lush green meadow. There was cattle in the field, and the rancher who came over to talk to us, gave us permission to drive back a bit further and take whatever photos we wanted to.

It seemed like no matter which way we turned, there was something that was incredibly beautiful to look at.

We found an old dirt road that had a sign on it that said "Cemetery 3 miles". We couldn't resist driving down that backroad. We had to go through a couple of pastures that had gates on them, locking them again as we passed through so the cattle wouldn't get out. (we again received permission to drive through and take whatever photos we wanted.) We finally came to the old cemetery, and found that it was still being used, quite recently. There were dates on the headstones dating back over 175 years. It was the most peaceful and serene place for a cemetery. The meadowlarks were singing, the sun was shining, and we felt like we had just discovered a treasure.

We decided that it was the perfect place for a picnic.

On the road back to the cemetery, there was a sign that said "Danger! Snake Crossing!"

This was the snake!

I loved finding old barns and fences to photograph. Someday I'll get a good camera, so I can take better photos.......but I was still having fun.

Another old barn, outside of Heppner, Oregon.

I'll take a backroad anyday rather than the well beaten path. Ron always says that "when the herd goes one way, you and I always go the other direction."

Sounds good to me!