Go Northwest!

SR 129 Dropping Down To the Grande Ronde River: 4:39 PM

South of the small community of Anatone and the wheat fields,  SR 129 passes the 792-acre Fields Spring State Park on the east side of the highway. This is a camping park providing views of three states and the Grande Ronde River from Puffer Butte.

Beyond the park, the highway soon begins a steep descent down a narrow canyon loosely following the course of Rattlesnake Creek to the Grande Ronde River as seen in the photo below.

Looking south at the highway descending numerous switchbacks.

Numerous viewpoint pullouts along the way provide opportunities to stop for photos and take in the splendid views.

Across the river, the highway begins a twisting upward climb through the distant canyon seen in the above photo and becomes Oregon SR 3, the Enterprise-Lewiston Highway, at the Oregon border.

Once out of the canyon, the highway seemingly flattens and runs south almost straight as an arrow to Enterprise, Oregon and the beautiful Wallowa Valley. Along the way it flows through a forest corridor and runs by a pullout that is the Joseph Canyon Viewpoint. The elevation along here, surprisingly, is more than 4,000 feet with a high point of 4,693 feet as announced by a summit sign in the proximity of the intersection of Day Ridge Road.

Having driven a distance of slightly less than 90 miles from Lewiston, we enter the Wallowa Valley with a backdrop of the magnificent Wallowa Mountains in the distance.

Next Stop: Enterprise, Oregon

Lewiston, Idaho: 3:30 PM

Lewiston, Idaho is one of my favorite places for many reasons including climate (particularly in the winter), the amazing topography and the proximity to the Clearwater and Snake rivers and Nez Perce country.

I also particularly like the tree-lined, shady streets of the older part of town in preference to the much newer suburban-like developments anchored by the big box stores seen almost everywhere across America.

Also, there is much to do in the area including history, culture, museums and scenery. I enjoy learning more about the history and people of the Nez Perce Tribe, the Nez Perce War, Gold Mining, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I also enjoy exploring Hell’s Canyon and visiting the campus of the Lewis-Clark State College and the visitor center at Hells Gate State Park.

Unfortunately on this trip, we were running late, the afternoon sun was far too close to the horizon and we had another three-hour drive ahead of us.

Next Stop:

Viewpoint Overlooking Lewiston, Idaho and Clarkston, Washington: 1:56 PM

Following lunch at Colfax, Washington, we continued south on State Route 195 intending to pass through  Lewiston, Idaho toward our day’s destination at Enterprise, Oregon. (An easy side trip is to stop at Pullman, Washington and the campus of Washington State University.)

Leaving the gentle hills of the Palouse, SR 195 rises and falls to rise again at it crosses the border into Idaho and joins US Highway 95 in approaching Lewiston. The highway seems to flatten a bit just briefly and then runs southeast a short distance before curving again to the east. At this curve is a viewpoint on the south side of the highway at a spur which affords views toward the south.

For a person unaware of the nature of the local topography, the view can be a jaw-dropping experience as the landscape suddenly changes. One discovers that the cities of Lewiston and Clarkston lie some 1,000 feet below the highway on either side the Snake River.

In the above photo looking south from the highway viewpoint, the camera has flattened the rather steep 1,000-foot descent. The highway seen in the photo is the Old Spiral Highway descending down from the spur. The Clearwater River is flowing from the left side of the photo to join the Snake River as the Snake exits Hells Canyon and passes between Lewiston on the left and Clarkston on the right.

Driving a loop tour in, through, and skirting the Hell’s Canyon National Recreation Area is an exercise in ups and downs accompanied by incredibly beautiful scenery offering loads of photo ops plus museum visits, history, culture, agriculture, forests, lakes, rivers, mountains and state and national scenic byways.

The tour can start and end from any of the following cities and towns: Clarkston, Colfax, Pullman or Spokane, Washington; Enterprise or Joseph, Oregon; Cambridge, Council, Grangeville, Lewiston or McCall, Idaho.

My trip log from a recent three-day tour of the loop showed a total of 730 miles driven with 15-1/2 hours behind the wheel at an average drive-time speed of 44.9 miles per hour. The entire route was over well-maintained two-lane, rural highways free of any construction delays.

The trip started and ended in Spokane, Washington with only one section backtracked. That section is the 106 miles between Spokane and Lewiston.

You can avoid the backtrack by including Moscow and Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho within the tour. The addition of these two cities adds only about 40 miles and increases the drive time only by about 50 minutes. Added attractions include the University of Idaho at Moscow, and scenic Lake Coeur d’ Alene.

See this Google map for the route as driven. And here’s the Google map showing the inclusion of Moscow and Coeur d’Alene to avoid the backtrack.