Tue, May 10, 2011

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

It works best to have a partner in life who is also addicted to road trips.  I am lucky to have one such man. – Donna Downey

The Lochsa Lodge is such a great place to stay.  Woke up this morning after a restful night’s sleep, looked out the window of our cabin and was staring eye to eye practically with a doe.  Soon there were two does listening intently to determine if indeed there were humans in the cabin.  Just a creak of the bathroom door and they were gone in a flash!

After a hearty breakfast in the lodge we were ready to hit the trail so to speak. We love to visit the DeVoto Memorial Cedar Grove whenever we take this route and we had come past it without stopping yesterday in order to be sure we could get a room at the lodge.  So we made the short drive East to enjoy almost the entire morning in this beautiful area of old growth red cedars among other large trees.  It is such a peaceful and restful place with a short winding trail thru the trees with the Lochsa River humming in the background.  It was a perfect morning.

From there we turned and headed West again on Highway 12 (also the Lewis & Clark Scenic ByWay) which follows the trail of several rivers its entire route with no services once you pass the lodge until some 65 miles later.  It is one of the prettiest and most remote drives in the US.  We made numerous stops to take short hikes, usually along a side creek in search of waterfalls.  Not long after we left the cedar grove the clouds began to break up for the first time in several days and we enjoyed the return of blue skies and sunshine for the rest of the day.

About 3:00 pm we returned to civilization via Lewiston, Idaho.  After a short stop to check in with family and my office and to fuel up we headed out again along the Snake River crossing shortly into Washington State and soon we were in the Palouse region.  This area of Washington is almost 100% farming and the primary crop is wheat.  It is one of the most picturesque areas we have ever seen.  This is not an area of level land… I don’t think there is any level land but is one of rolling dune looking hills. These random looking “hills and hollers” were formed during the Ice Age and consist of a very fertile layer of soil.  Due to the steepness of these hills special equipment has evolved to farm this area. It is amazing just to watch them plowing, spraying or harvesting on hills we would never consider using in our area.  The fields all look manicured right to the edge of the road and many of the farmer’s homes are meticulously landscaped.  The small towns are very compact and are unusually clean.

We stopped in Pullman, Washington (home to Washington State University) and got a room before heading out to Steptoe Butte. This rock formation rises above the surrounding Palouse hills by some 1,000 feet at an elevation of 3,612 feet and is the perfect place from which to view the rolling hills.  There is a winding road that takes you all the way to the top of the butte and from there you have a 360 degree view of the area.  Today we watched one guy paragliding from the top of the butte.  It was a gorgeous sight as he stepped off the side of the butte with the late afternoon sun sweeping across the rolling hills of recently plowed fields alternating with fields of green wheat.  We watched as he glided and floated until he landed barely visible some miles away. 

We then made the short drive back to Pullman and are ready for a night’s rest.  It was another great day on the road.  We are well tonight and hope yall are too.

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger