Apr 21 - Through the Mountains to Moses Lake, WA (elevation: 326m / 1,070')
We retired last night just after 9 pm, both tired from what was a fairly long day. And after a somewhat noisy night's sleep we awoke very early – just after 6 a.m. So needless to say we were on the road early too. But that had its advantages.
We only had a short distance to drive down I5 to Everett where we turned onto Hwy 2 heading east, then Hwy 203 heading south. When I looked for a "better" way around Seattle to I90, this looked like the route. And we were not disappointed.
Boy, there are some pretty little towns away from the interstates! Our first almost stop was Monroe with its boulevard of flowers and gardens full of gorgeous rhodis but we did manage one of "downtown."
We did try to park but ended up driving into a parking lot by the river with only one entrance – the one we entered! At the river's end, we realized the easiest way out was backwards, so I backed up about 100' to the entrance, then continued down the road.
Our next town was Duvall where we stopped for a brief walkabout. Unfortunately the micro brewery pub wasn't open.
There was road works at the Snoqualmie Falls which we managed to get through with very little delay. We both wanted to stop and take a look but after the previous episode with a parking lot, we decided to defer to a later date.
At Snoqualmie, just beyond the "falls", we found the North West Railway Museum. I couldn't pass this up so we did another walkabout. I won't bore you will all the train stuff, but the museum had some interesting steam locomotives, particularly a 2-6-6-2 Mallet and a 3-truck Shay, both logging locomotives.
Back on I90, the only way through the Coast range, we summitted at just over 3,000' – still lots of snow as you can see:
Finally we headed downhill through sagebrush terrain dotted with clumps of black-eyed susans, mauve lilacs, and wind farms. The terrain, just as quickly, changed to vast ranches. We arrived at Ellensburg and gassed up at the Flying J where we settled down for an afternoon nap – I was tired – the "hum-drum" of driving the concrete interstate highway was tiring!
An hour and a half later, I woke Jen and suggested that we drive to Moses Lake. Along the way, we crossed over the mighty Columbia River and stopped at the lookout high above the river. The Wildhorse Mountain horses (sculptures) were even higher!
I suggested to Jen that we camp at the municipal campground in Moses Lake. The last time I camped here (in another chapter of my life) was back in 1977.
We picked a spot and set up camp for a couple of days. We'll head off on Saturday for the Coeur d'Alene, ID area.
