Because of limited time, we're motoring quickly through Washington (and a little bit of Idaho) on our way to Glacier Park, Montana. We really would have liked to spend time in the Pacific Northwest, but, as the case with a couple of other places, we figured rather than rush through the area, we would table it for now, and see it the right way some time in the future.
We should have paid more attention to our geography classes in school; Oregon and Washington were nothing like we imagined. (We had envisioned Oregon and Washington as being all big pine forests and lumberjacks. ) Coastal Oregon had some great forests, but was more like a northern New England coast (with better beaches and better weather). Oregon Dunes looked really amazing; we hope to get back there some day.
We followed the Columbia River a bit (through the scenic gorge over the mountains); that, too, was a really beautiful car trip. We then drove up through Central Washington via Ellensburg to Spokane. This area was primarily desert- it looked sort of like what we saw in Colorado before getting up in the mountains. The weather was more temperate, though: around 80, with really high winds. Folks we spoke to say it's really windy like this all of the time.
In Ellensburg, where we camped the first night, we were next to a very pretty river; the Yakima; it's supposed to be an excellent trout stream. Here's a picture of our campsite. We also stayed the night outside of Spokane, where we ended up in a campsite close to a railroad crossing. The owner had warned us that the campground movie might be a bit loud, but didn't bother to mention the freight trains with their piercing horns that passed through several times during the night. It was a little bit like something out of "My Cousin Vinny". But the owners seemed like nice folks and it was otherwise a nice campground. That stuff's all part of a roadtrip.
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