Day 2 July 3, 2025 Condon Oregon to Renton Washington 277 miles
We had our microwave breakfast and then headed for the gas station. We filled the tank with premium ethanol free gas for a mere $4.999 per gallon. Then Rob took one of the small thermos in to fill with ice from the soda fountain. They charged him a dollar. When he took the second one in they were going to charge another dollar but a another customer protested so they didn’t.
The landscape out of town was similar to that around Grangeville Idaho. Rolling hills with huge fields of grain. All around are hundreds of big wind turbines. They are turning rather quickly because the wind is really blowing. In fact it is blowing so hard that it popped the passenger side door open three times before we figured out that the wind against the side curtains was forcing the door to open. The latch on that door has been bad for awhile and needs some special attention. We removed the curtain and the problem went away.
We came to a turnout that pointed to each of the volcanoes and named them. We could see Mount Jefferson, Mount Hood, Mount St Helens, Mount Adams, and Mount Rainer. They were truly beautiful.
A big brush fire had gone through one area recently since the ground was still black. They managed to get it out before destroying a house and some out buildings.
We continued down the road and eventually came to Biggs Junction. That is a small community and major fuel point just east of The Dalles. There are at least four major fueling points here. We chose the Pilot which seemed to be the busiest. We get a small discount there. All those others must also.
After fueling we crossed over the Columbia River to the Washington side and continued up the hill to the highway. We figured it would be much the same as when we used to go to Vancouver. Much to our surprise we turned off and went further up the hill toward Yakima. This section of road is not very scenic. Lots of dry hills and sage brush.
Toppenish was the first town we encountered. Just happened to be a small park with a parking spot in the shade so we stopped for our cheese, beef stick and crackers lunch. The temperature was very pleasant.
The landscape after we left town contained lots of fruit trees. Lots of apples and other fruit that must have already been picked as the trees looked bare of fruit. We eventually came to another town. We drove through quite a bit of it before we realized we were in Yakima. Most of the time we take the freeway and the backroads don’t look the same. We saw lots of fruit stands most of which were promoting cherries. We didn’t realize that we should have purchased some.
We must have missed a turn because we ended up driving through the orchards on some rather really small back roads.
The orchards gave way to forest. Now there are lots of RVs on the road. Not sure where they are all going to fit. Most of the campgrounds have full signs at the entrance. There are quite a few campgrounds. Some actually have bigger camping spots. The drive is beautiful even with all the traffic. The driver has a different perspective.
The highlight of the day was seeing a group of big horn sheep right down by the road. They seemed to all be ewes and young animals. We didn’t see any of the rams with the big horns. There must have been at least 15 of them. They hurried up the rock slope before we could get a picture.
Everyone must be careful driving on this road. One side has sharp edges that drop in a deep barrow pit or against the mountain. The other side drops down the mountain side a very long steep distance. Stay alert, stay alive.
The mountains in the distance still have some snow on them. The closer we got to the top the more snow we saw near the road. Now there are numerous turn outs. Some are quite large. Lots of people are stopped to go hiking or simply to enjoy the view. Small waterfalls are scattered all along the mountain side.
Oh my there is a Model T on a trailer going the opposite direction. We weren’t expecting that one.
We think this pass that we just went over was Chinook Pass. We never saw a sign for the summit so no idea how high we got. Also not sure the name but the distance signs earlier kept giving the mileage to Chinook Pass.
Well we made a mistake somewhere along the way and neglected to fill with gas. We passed a gas station and then the sign that said next gas 50 miles. We checked one of the apps which said we had 52 miles to empty. Just to add a little more tension we had to keep pulling over to let cars pass.
Well we finally got to that next gas station where we put in 10.936 gallons in a ten gallon tank. That gas was also $4.999 per gallon.
We arrived at Rob’s brother Ed’s house about 6:00 pm. The rest of the evening was uneventful. Ed and Rob worked on the car and trailer for awhile. It is true, two minds are better than one.
Spoffords Travel 