Drive Along US 90: Seattle to Philipsburg

The drive from Seattle, Washington to Philipsburg, Montana is one that takes you through the Cascade Mountains and past expansive fields of crops being watered by elaborate watering systems that keep the landscape green where, around the green, the dryness is startling.

As we traveled the ten hours it took last Friday to get from Point A (our friends’ house outside Seattle) to Point B (our friends’ house in Philipsburg) I noted some the points of interest we passed in case any of these might interest you if you are ever traveling along here in a car one day. There are several places that entice a person to turn off and take a detour. The thing about those brown signs that show places of interest, they don’t tell you how far anything is. If you turn off I-90 to head to any of them, you might be driving for miles. Don’t head off until you check first. Here’s the list of what caught my eye.

Ginkgo Petrified Forest
Wild Horse Monument
Cave B Estate Winery (This had a blue tourist attraction sign)
Grand Coulee Dam
Mullan Tree Historical Site
Silver Mountain-World’s Longest Gondola

Big Creek Historical Site

Along the way I learned that Grant County Washington is the “National Leading Potato Producing County” and that there is a stretch of highway where for 14 miles there are signs that say what crops are growing in the fields you are passing. Peas, sweet corn, wheat, potatoes and alfalfa sure look lush when you whiz by them at 70 miles an hour. If you click on the Flickr photo by squeezymoose, you’ll see that the blue sign in the photo says “Wheat.”