Palouse Scenic Byway

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Spokane

   Spokane is the biggest city between Seattle and Minneapolis, about two hundred thousand people in the dry country on the eastern side of Washington state, and it exists because of a waterfall. The Spokane River drops through a basalt gorge in the middle of downtown, a thundering set of falls that is the heart of Riverfront Park, a space created for the 1974 World's Fair. The Spokane tribe lived and fished here for thousands of years, and the name means children of the sun.

   Read the complete Spokane write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Spokane is where the day begins. Next is Steptoe Butte.

2. 2. Steptoe Butte

   Steptoe Butte is a pointed hill in a landscape that is otherwise all curves, and that is exactly why you can see so much from it. The Palouse is a region of south-eastern Washington where the earth rolls in endless, smooth, wheat-covered dunes, the product of wind-blown dust, called loess, piled up over many thousands of years. Steptoe rises abruptly out of this sea of soft hills, a steep cone of ancient quartzite that was once a mountaintop and was buried by the lava flows that covered the surrounding land, leaving only its summit exposed.

   Read the complete Steptoe Butte write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Steptoe Butte comes up about 88 km into the recorded legs. Next is Pullman.

3. 3. Pullman

   Pullman is a college town surrounded by wheat, and it carries the confidence of both. Washington State University, founded in 1890, sits on the hill above the town, with its red-brick buildings, clock tower and sports stadium, and the whole place hums with students for most of the year and falls quiet in the summer. The town sits among the rolling Palouse hills, with fields of wheat, peas and lentils curving away on all sides, and the smell of cut grass, dust and diesel drifts in on the wind.

   Read the complete Pullman write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 141 km into the recorded legs you reach Pullman. Next is Clarkston.

4. 4. Clarkston

   Clarkston sits on the Washington bank of the Snake River, directly opposite Lewiston in Idaho, and the two towns, one on each side of a bridge, effectively form a single community in a river canyon of dry hills. The river here is wide and green, and the elevation is low, only about eight hundred feet, which makes it one of the warmest places in the Pacific Northwest. In summer the heat can be fierce, with temperatures well above thirty-five degrees Celsius, but the winters are mild.

   Read the complete Clarkston write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Clarkston closes the day.