Prologue

For me Palouse was a destination that was so elusive, one which felt so close but out of reach. Add to that it is a place to be visited during late spring to early summer, I somehow never made it there. I always somehow missed the timing . It was also a place that I felt was far away enough that I could not do it in a single day, but then close enough that I didn’t feel the value in staying overnight. I really wished I could visit it during the road trip to Idaho because Spokane (where we stayed on the first night to Idaho) is the typical halt during a visit to Palouse. But because of the time constraints (and season) the plan was dropped. Palouse was burning in the back of my mind as the only major place in Washington that I had not been able to visit. Every other major location in Washington that people usually talk about, I have been to by my nineT or car. 

Now what is the deal with Palouse that garners that much of a need to visit it? Well to be honest, before I started the trip, I was oblivious to that as well and this road trip set me straight on that. Don’t let the above mislead you into thinking that I visited Palouse, I still didn’t reach Palouse. I visited Palouse falls and Palouse is another 80 or 90 miles (~150 kms) away from the falls and a round trip would have added a lot more distance to the trip (Also, I wouldn’t have made it there by sunrise). A trip to Palouse will be a separate one, maybe one that will happen soon and I will write about it when that happens – if it is interesting enough.

This trip started as a visit to Palouse falls because from my limited research, I thought that Palouse falls was all there is to see in that area. It certainly didn’t help that the last time I travelled by this route was at night. So I didn’t quite understand what I was missing either. I do have another road trip to Palouse in mind already, but we’ll talk about that later. Now let’s get down to business.

This trip was one that was put together in a rush. At the time, the restrictions because of the pandemic was somewhat eased, but the danger was still real. So I wanted to keep this trip as a strict one day trip that can be done with limited interaction with others and as little stops in between as possible. Thus I decided to do the trip by car as taking the nineT would have required almost 4 or 5 gas stops. Another factor was that I was carrying food as well which would stay fresher in the car than on a motorcycle. The round trip was a 600 mile (~970 kms) one. 

On 22nd May, I went to bed early at around 5:00PM. The plan was to start the drive at midnight as I had to cover almost 290 miles (470 kms) to reach Palouse Falls and I wanted to reach there in time for sunrise – which as per google was at 5 in the morning. I was excited as this is the first long drive in a while and I had high expectations.