I decided the morning of last Saturday to drive to Portland for a Christmas party. The party was at 7pm that night, so I could have gone home for some rest before making the ~3 hour drive down from Bothell.
However, I wasn’t in the mood to take the boring route via I-5, so I began looking for a “detour”. I came up with this:
Google Maps estimates seven hours for the drive. It ended up taking me about 6.5 hours with a few quick stops. The route took me from I-90 & Snoqualmie Pass, to Canyon Rd. west of I-82/US-97 near Yakima, and then south on US-97 to Goldendale where I got off the highway and headed west, and then south on SR-142. Instead of crossing into Oregon from there I stayed in Washington and cruised along the Columbia using SR-14… I find it’s best to stay out of Oregon for as long as possible.
I had swapped the 18″ wheels out for the factory 16″ rims earlier that day… and then mounted the new Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus tires. They’re a high performance all-season tire that I’ll use through the winter months and likely for a few lapping sessions and autocrosses later in the year. This drive was a good excuse to ‘test’ the tires a little while enjoying the roads and avoiding large amounts of other cars.
Canyon Rd. near Yakima was awesome, and beautiful. That said, you apparently need to watch for cops as much as possible. I did pass a couple unmarked units toward the south end of the road before getting back on the main highway. The road is designated as SR-821 and it follows the Yakima River from I-90 to the southern part of Yakima.
from wikipedia:
US-97 is actually a rather nice stretch of road from Yakima to the Columbia Gorge, and without too much traffic (at least during this time of year). A little south of Toppenish I lost my Verizon data signal and lost my AT&T signal all together. It wasn’t until Goldendale that I got the AT&T signal back, maintaining full Edge service the whole way to the Gorge while my Verizon phone continued with a signal, but no data coverage. I’m still amazed at how well AT&T’s Edge covers random places in eastern WA.
Goldendale is mostly known for its observatory, as far as I’m concerned. The observatory is why I first passed through Goldendale (high school field trip). Now I mostly view it as a confluence of roads leading to cool and interesting places.
Some of my favorite roads at the moment are north of the Columbia Gorge, in between Goldendale and Trout Lake. There just a couple state highways and a few local roads connecting the communities in this region, all of which are worth driving. It can be a beautiful area; a sort of grassy plateau with amazing views of Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and sometimes Mt. Rainier.
I first ended up on the “Glenwood-Goldendale Rd” back in 2003 when my brother and I drove around eastern Washington in his ‘84 GTI. I was using my first digital camera back then and didn’t really know what I was doing, but I did capture this shot of Mt. Adams with a barn in the foreground (which I believe no longer exists).
The Glenwood Hwy is a very long road taking you from Goldendale to Glenwood and then to Trout Lake. You end up following the Klickitat River along an awesome canyon full of twisty turns and amazing views, before driving on some incredibly boring straight sections of road toward the end.
a shot of Mt. Adams near Glenwood from a drive I did in May..
This time I turned south fairly quickly after Goldendale onto SR-142. This road is, for the moment, my new favorite driving road. It’s a state highway which, for a few miles, narrows to about 1.5 lanes wide with no center line, a reduced amount of signs, and no real barrier to keep you from driving off the edge into the deep Klickitat River valley below. This tight canyon-following twisty road is awesome fun with almost no traffic (though from my experience you are nearly guaranteed to run across a deputy sheriff since there aren’t many roads in the area).
Once you get further down hill (heading south, toward the Columbia Gorge) you a dropped onto a more normal state highway with regular markings and barriers. The road eventually takes you more level with the river as the canyon widens out, passing you through a couple of towns along the way. The area is apparently known for its fishing, so the road can be a little more full of the tourist types in the warmer months.
The highway is a roughly 13 miles long, so it’s not quite as long as I’d like (this is where SR-112 comes in, along the Strait of Juan de Fuca), but I believe it’s still a really special section of road.
You eventually reach the Columbia Gorge at the town of Lyle, where I turned west toward Vancouver and Portland. I much prefer taking SR-14 rather than I-84 on the Oregon side (even though this choice can add an extra 20 – 40 minutes to the trip). However, the last couple of times I’ve traveled this highway I have taken a few quick detours back up into the hills above the gorge. This time I only took the “Lyle White Salmon Rd”, which is designated as an “old hwy” on a few signs. It’s an immediate turn-off once you cross the Klickitat River from Lyle, and it takes you back up into the hills a bit so you can see Mt. Hood across the river on a clear day. The sun was just setting for me on this drive, so I stopped over “Rowland Lake” (just a section of the river cut off by SR-14) and took this pano:
There are a few more fun (and relatively curvy) side roads like this farther west as you drive closer to Vancouver, but it was getting dark quickly so I ended up staying on the main highway for the rest of the trip. SR-14 is a beautiful piece of road in every way, but it’s mostly just two lanes with few passing areas and way too many cars. The drive gets a bit boring, so I just used this part to relax after the fun trip down.
Nearly seven hours, 400 miles, and 34mpg after I started I arrived in Portland, having thoroughly tested and broken in my tires (and boosted my adrenaline level a little). If it hasn’t been made clear already those tires are awesome in the wet, and I have since confirmed that they’re pretty freakin’ good in the dry as well. They cost me a lot of money but were well worth the purchase for the versatility and longevity (compared to other similar options).
And the roads weren’t too bad either…
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