Pacific Northwest Backroad Adventures

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.

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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.

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Just launched is a new forum at http://www.pnwoutdoors.net for all of you to discuss and share your favorite Pacific Northwest outdoor activities.

Discuss and plan trips. Discuss outdoor activities including wheeling, camping, hiking, snowboarding, skiing, mountain biking and more. I’ll be adding more categories as the forum takes shape.

Registration is simple and free. Join today and introduce yourself on the forum. Share your passion for the Northwest outdoors.

With an actual weekend off, and knowing that I would probably soon be selling my Jeep Wrangler to buy a larger adventure vehicle, it was time for a three day Jeep adventure.

Our first goal (my son Steven and myself) was to travel from I-90 near Cle Elum, Washington to Highway 410 near Cliffdell, Washington via logging roads. I heard people talk about such a road in the past, but have never attempted to locate it.

Our second goal was to travel from Highway 410 to Highway 12 over logging roads. We would then travel Highway 12 over White Pass to Packwood. From Packwood, we would head South on logging roads towards Mt. Adams and locate a campsite for the night.

As in previous adventures, I turned to the book Washington Byways: Backcountry Drives For The Whole Family by Tony Huegel for some of my planning. The most likely route was to use Tour 43 - Quartz Mountain as a starting point for our weekend adventure.

Cascade Overland Adventure: Intro | Day One | Day Two | Day Three

After getting my Jeep back together, I wanted to get a multi-day camping/road trip in. I wanted to see how my newly built cargo box was going to work and experiment with stowing camping gear for a 3-day mini-expedition plus a dog.

My goals for this trip weren’t to go wheeling, especially since I was traveling solo. I wanted to hit the back roads and travel as much gravel and/or primitive roads as possible, carrying all my supplies, stopping only for fuel as needed (since I don’t have a gas can carrier yet).

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This is a collection of photos taken between August 6-8, 2006 while taking a backroads tour of the Olympic Peninsula in my Jeep. The gallery features many of the scenic views from the overland routes driven including some from the Olympic National Park.

You can view the gallery at Olympic Peninsula Backroads Tour

Enjoy the pics.

If you’re like me, you enjoy enjoy exploring and playing in the Pacific Northwest outdoors. You have your adventure vehicle (sometimes a four wheel drive, sometimes not) that takes you to your destination to enjoy your favorite activities (camping, hiking, exploring, climbing, mountain biking, fishing, hunting, rock hounding, prospecting, water sports, snow sports, etc.).

As time goes by, this site will evolve into a member inspired site where you, the member, has input on the direction this site takes.

Thank you for joining me on this journey.

Steve B, Webmaster
pnwadventures