Pacific Northwest Backroad Adventures

Who would have thought that a Friday trip to the Whiskey Dick Road Management Area near Ellensburg, Washington would bring out more participants than most weekend trips.

Well Jerry (aka SoggyMountain) picked a wonderful day for a Backroad Drivers Northwest tour of the Whiskey Dick. Hands down, this was the warmest day of 2008 to date.

The meeting place that morning was the Bar 14 restaurant in Ellensburg. In attendance for the days trip was of course Jerry from Yakima driving his full size Jeep SJ Wagoneer; (and if I get the names wrong, please forgive and let me know to correct them) Phil and his son Travis from Newcastle, driving the white Ford Explorer; Paul from Tacoma driving the other Ford Explorer; Jim (stucky) driving the white Chevy Pickup (I forgot to ask where Jim was from); Trish and Tammy from Bothel driving a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon; John and Cindy from Monroe driving a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon; Sid from Renton driving his Jeep Wrangler, Peter and Don (I forgot to ask where they were from or if I did, I didn’t write it down) driving the Sportsmobile van; myself in my 80-series Toyota Land Cruiser; and Bill from Ellensburg who joined us for breakfast but had to supervise a fencing property today so he couldn’t join us.

(more…)

Brandon over on OlympiaFJ60.net has a piece on driving what he calls “Blue Highways” (the secondary highways on the maps), and specifically a loop he recently completed beginning and ending in Yakima and taking him along the Columbia River to Vantage, Ellensburg, and through the Yakima River canyon.

Read the entire trip report at Driving the Blue Highways - Yakima to Vantage to Ellensburg.

Enjoy.

After a nice peaceful night in a hotel in Ellensburg, Washington, we loaded up the Land Cruiser and headed out for a day trip to the Quilomene Wildlife Area. After topping off the fuel tank, we met up with the Northwest Backroads Drivers group for breakfast. Today, in addition to the participants from the previous days trip to the Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area (see Whiskey Dick Overland Tour), we were joined for breakfast by Bill and Ed, both of Ellensburg.

(more…)

After a night of camping along the Yakima River, my daughter and I got up early, broke camp and headed to Ellensburg, Washington to meet up with the Northwest Backroad Drivers group to explore the Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area just east of Ellensburg.

After a stop for a quad iced americano and to top off the gas tank, we pulled into the Bar 14 Restaurant for the morning meet up. We were running a little late by time we arrived. Already eating breakfast were Rich (driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee), Jan and their 4 year old granddaughter Tara and Jerry our tour leader for the weekend (driving his Ford Bronco II).

(more…)

My daughter and I planned a weekend of camping in between the two day trip to the Quilomene area with the Northwest Backroad Drivers group. As luck would have it, the camping trip did not pan out as I would have hoped for. But we still had fun.

After a late start getting out of town, we finally made Ellensburg, Washington around 8:00 PM on Friday night. Not a lot of time to find a camping site, especially on Friday night. I spotted some campgrounds on the Yakima River in the Washington Road & Recreation Atlas south of Ellensburg in the canyon, so we headed that direction.

(more…)

Last Saturday, we just completed another wonderful trip with the Backroad Drivers Northwest group. On this trip we explored some of the roads near Rimrock Lake off Highway 12 in Washington state. Our focus for the day was the Wildcat Creek and Russell Ridge areas.

Jerry, our tour leader posted a nice write-up of the trip and it is posted at Rimrock Roads and Trails.

You can view more of the photos I shot on the trip at Rimrock Roads and Trails Photos.

Anytime I’m traveling through Eatonville, Washington to get back to my home in Edgewood, one of my favorite routes to miss the infamous State Route (SR) 161 traffic through Graham and South Hill is to take the leisurely scenic drive on Orville Road East through the Ohop Valley, past Lake Kapowsin and into the Puyallup Valley to Orting. My description of this route will be from the town of Eatonville heading towards Orting.

(more…)

Summer in Western Washington usually doesn’t start officially (at least weather wise) until July 5 of each year. Today (06.24.07) was no exception. The forecast for the day was for rain and a snow level of 5000 feet.

Since I worked the night before and my wife’s nephew was coming over for dinner, I had to keep the day’s adventure somewhat local from my home. Flipping through the book Washington Byways, I found Tour 49 - High Rock Lookout Loop and it fit perfectly into the day’s time restraints. I loaded up the dog in the Land Cruiser and headed towards the Cascades in hopes of finding some sun above the low hanging clouds.

(more…)

These are photos from various backroad locations throughout the Ohop and Kapowsin areas of Pierce County, Washington.

An article on this adventure will be posted soon.

To view the photos, visit Kapowsin-Ohop Valley Backroads.

Last Sunday (June 24, 2007), I ventured into the High Rock area near Mt. Rainier. The weather was overcast and rain most of the day meaning in no great views of Mt. Rainier. These are the photos I shot on this adventure. Most are taken from the inside of my Toyota Land Cruiser.

High Rock Loop Photos

The complete story of this adventure will be coming soon.