3 Flags - Day 17

Start Location: Colfax, WA
Ending Location: Everett, WA
Miles Today: 292
Trip Miles: 5166
States Visited: 9
National Parks/Monuments: 9
Low Temp: 43 degrees
High Temp: 64 degrees
Min Elevation: 38'
Max Elevation: 2997'

Route Map:

Today was a day for 'getting home'. We only stopped one time today and that was for a gas stop in Ellensburg. So we went about 160 miles straight without a stop and then 130 miles. That was very unusual for a trip where we sometimes stopped every 2 or 3 miles to see something or take a picture.

We both decided Colfax was a nice small town. It reminded us of the small towns in Utah, There were fresh flowers all over and the town looked like people cared about it. Many of the small towns we went through just looked neglected. Anyway we left Colfax to clear skies and a temperature of 50 degrees. We started out with our rain gear tops on for protection from the cold and wind.

We traveled route 26 from Colfax to Vantage and the scenery reminded us a lot of yesterday. The road was in great shape and there was very little traffic. The only problem we had was the wind. We still had high winds. Most of the time it was a headwind but whenever the farmers were out working in the fields there was a lot of dust. Sometimes to the point of severely limiting our vision.

Eventually, as we got closer to the mountains, the scenery turned greener. Finally, we arrived at Vantage and the Columbia River. We got on I90 here and pointed ourselves towards Seattle. The only stop from here was in Ellensburg where we put on the rest of our rain gear figuring that would guarantee that it wouldn't rain. That didn't work.

As we climbed to Snoqualmie Pass it got colder and wetter -- too cold and wet for pictures. But we made it over the pass, the rain stopped, and we arrived back home, still a little cold, but happy to be home again. In the next couple of days we'll put together the final statistics and wrap-up. Thanks for joining us on our trip. We hope you enjoyed reading about the trip as much as we enjoyed doing it.