Was there a name for that largely empty space beyond Washington’s Cascades Range and into the Idaho Panhandle? A little research suggested the Inland Northwest, or perhaps a now lesser-used designation, the Inland Empire (not to be confused with a similarly named area of California). Anyway, that’s where I traveled for a few days on my latest adventure.
Why there? I had a couple of reasons. First, it would fill in some blank spots on my County Counting map. I added another 14 counties to my list, now totaling 1,698 (54%). I’ve long since given up trying to visit every county in the United States during my lifetime but I still enjoy chipping away at it. Plus, these were some pretty large counties geographically so they made a noticeable difference on my map.
Mainly Marathons
Second, it marked another experience with Mainly Marathons, this time their Northwest Series. We’ve done a bunch of their races and series before, specifically: Dust Bowl (2013); Riverboat (2014); Center of the Nation (2015); New England (2016); Heartland (2017), and Appalachian (2022). Northwest was a new one for us but the premise remained basically the same.
Mainly Marathons caters to people who want to run a race in every state and/or add to their lifetime totals. Thus they locate their races near state borders to minimize travel time. The twist this time was the isolation of the remote corner where the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho intersect. It sits too far away from any other states. So there were two races in each state, a total of six. We did each state once, Day 1, Day 3, and Day 5, separated by recovery days.
My participation in these races has evolved over the years. At first I simply chauffeured my wife between them, collecting counties along the way. Eventually I started doing some of the shorter distances, like 5K and then 10K, because I got bored waiting for my wife to finish. This time I completed a half-marathon distance in each of the three states, which I found quite doable especially with those rest days built in. Most people completed a full marathon for six days in a row so my mileage was a mere one-quarter the typical output. My accomplishment was pretty anemic by that standard although still ambitious for me personally.
Logistics
Mainly Marathons scheduled races in Pendleton, Oregon; Clarkston, Washington; and Lewiston, Idaho. The last two sit directly across the Snake River from each other, meaning we could stay in the same place for four days. That was nice, and decidedly atypical of the daily traveling circus that’s generally required for a Mainly Marathons race series. But first we needed to get to this secluded area and there weren’t a lot of attractive options from the U.S. East Coast.
Flights travel between Seattle and Walla Walla, Washington on Alaska Airlines. Similarly Lewiston, Idaho is served by Delta from Salt Lake City or by United from Seattle. Unfortunately connections were problematic because it was literally just a couple flights per day at unusual hours. So instead we used a much larger airport with numerous options — Spokane — which was further away but easily accessible. From there we would need to drive two or three hours south into our target area. I didn’t mind that too much. It simply padded my county counting list.
Palouse Falls
We decided to drive from Spokane to Walla Walla the first day, and then onward to Pendleton, Oregon the second. That way we could break it up a bit. It is pretty barren out there, and really dry, at least in the waning days of summer. The rolling hills lined up in shades of brown and tan to the horizon.
Interesting places exist even in the middle of nowhere and we found one along our path. The Palouse River cuts through the countryside and forms a gorge before it empties into the Snake River. At one point it drops over a ledge about 200 feet (61 meters) high into a large pool. This is Palouse Falls, the official waterfall for the state of Washington (map). I’m not sure why it outranks all of the other waterfalls in Washington. Certainly I found Snoqualmie Falls on the western side of the state equally impressive. I guess there isn’t much here in the Inland Northwest so they need to hype their interesting sites as best they can.
Regardless, it’s rather impressive and definitely worth a short detour from our most efficient route. Plus it’s not very crowded on a random midweek school day near the end of September. We got warm weather and an attraction mostly to ourselves, the best of both worlds.
Return to Walla Walla
County Counting creates odd situations. I’ve been to Walla Walla before. We were here during our Washington State Adventures back in 2012. It hardly seems possible that so many years have passed so quickly but my Complete Index doesn’t lie. But I also figured I’d likely never return. Usually I just move along after I “capture” a new county because I still have so many more ahead of me.
Nonetheless we were back in Walla Walla and it would earn a special, exalted status in my books: an overnight county. I started tracking those a few years ago when I figured I needed to drive at least five hour from home for any new unvisited counties. So now I have another list to tend.
Big House Brew Pub
Walla Walla is known more for wine that beer. It anchors the Walla Walla Valley, a formally recognized “American Viticultural Area” that includes about 140 vineyards. I’m not a wine connoisseur specifically but when I do tastings I tend to go towards darker, more hearty varieties. Fortunately that’s the exact specialty of this area, including Cabernet, Merlot, and Syrah. I counted something like 20 different tasting rooms in downtown Walla Walla and we stopped briefly at a couple.
But I still like my breweries and brewpubs so we ate dinner that first evening at the Big House Brew Pub. Last time, back in 2012, I visited Mill Creek Brewpub. Well that one closed in the meantime and Big House occupies the same building as the former Mill Creek. So that was a bit of unsettling déjà vu. Nonetheless they both “counted” as separate visits on my Brewery Map since they were distinct entities.
We were well-positioned at the end of the first day. We still had one more full day ahead of us to acclimate to the time zone and the climate, and then the race series would begin.
See more photos on Flickr: Idaho, Oregon, Washington.
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