The AARoads Blog

the last Alaska Highway batch, which contains no actual Alaska Highway – and, in fact, very little Canada. We had about 24 hours before we needed to be at the airport, so we spent some time exploring eastern Washington, Idaho, and even a little bit of Montana.

What do we have here? An original I-90 trailblazer, complete with green sign back. We found a few of these in Spokane, and several modern copies with the old-style shield.

Someone made this gantry, with correct distances and accurate 1930s Washington style, for his own front yard.

Sunset in Idaho.

This may very well be the oldest sign in Washington. The 97 covers up an outline shield! It does not reflect very well after about 52 years of service.

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Photos from the Alaska highway! Okay, well, first photos from flying to Seattle, and then driving to Dawson Creek, where the Alaska Highway begins.

Some photos in this post brought to you by Daniel Brim. We have an equitable arrangement: he provides talent at taking photographs, I run us off the road only occasionally.

Somewhere over the Rockies. Between Denver and Seattle for sure.

And here’s the northern lights! Just north of Prince George, British Columbia, which is well south of where such a strong display tends to usually appear. About twelve hours after landing … mission accomplished. Now all we had to do was drive the Alaska Highway!

And one more northern lights photo, this time from Dan. Hmm, I wonder which one of us has a better camera!

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Going back to June 2008, for an Oregon/Washington trip I took. Entirely west of the Cascades.

The Milky Way. Near Mount Rainier; well past the lights of the I-5 corridor.

The arc trail, by the way, is an airplane – note the break in the trail which occurred while I restarted the exposure.

And the find of the trip – this old-style Oregon 126 eagle highway marker. Marked 1/17/73 on the back; this style dates to 1948.

Mount Rainier at sunset.

The last remaining US-99 shield in Washington state. The Alaskan Way Viaduct was renumbered to state route 99 in 1969, but this shield remains at one of the on-ramps.

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Four major highways serve the greater Spokane area. They are Interstate 90, U.S. 2, U.S. 195, and U.S. 395. U.S. Of those, only Interstate 90 is a full freeway, although U.S. 2 does constitute a freeway towards Spokane International Airport. Growth currently focuses on the U.S. 2 & 395 (Division Street) corridor leading north from central Spokane to their split near Country Homes.

At present Division Street provides the main route to the growing northern suburbs. The surface highway carries six lanes overall through a busy commercial corridor. To alleviate the arterial, WSDOT is constructing a new freeway for U.S. 395 in conjunction with the FHWA between Interstate 90 and U.S. 395 near Wandermere Golf Course (north of the U.S. 2 and 395 split at Country Homes).

U.S. 2 & 395 follows the one-way couplet of Ruby Street (north) and Division Street (south) east of downtown Spokane, and Division Street wholly from Cleveland Avenue northward. Division Street consists of a six-lane arterial through the intersection of Central Avenue (pictured here). Washington 291 (Francis Avenue) intersects U.S. 2 & 395 at a busy intersection in two blocks. Photo taken 09/01/06.

Construction began on August 22, 2001 on initial grading and drainage projects associated with the northernmost freeway alignment at Farwell Road and U.S. 2. Work continues at the Farwell Road interchange and overall corridor between Francis Avenue and U.S. 395 (Wandermere) with a potential opening by 2009. Additional freeway north of the Spokane River may open as soon as 2011 depending upon funding. However the freeway south of the Spokane River to Interstate 90 may take as long as 20 years to complete at current levels of funding due to a $3.3 billion overall price tag.

A look at the North-South Freeway corridor between U.S. 2 and Hawthorne Avenue.

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The second day of our marathon drive continued us northeast into the Treasure State of Montana, my first visit there, and then back west via Interstate 90 to Seattle. A bout of allergies made life difficult through Boise, but the sleep I got in Kooskia all but removed the effects of that!

We resumed our journey along Idaho 13 north to U.S. 12 east for the eastward trek into Montana. U.S. 12 is considered a scenic route throughout its routing in Idaho, so signs are all coloured brown (shades of the old Florida days, I tell you!). The road lives up to its scenic designation, paralleling the Lochsa River from Lowell east to McConell Mountain and Lolo Pass. Surprisingly, the road moves fast and passing opportunities are available more than you would think.

Westbound reassurance shield for U.S. 12 posted at the settlement of Lowell. The Lochsa River flows into the Clearwater Middle Fork river at Lowell. U.S. 12 parallels the waterway west to Kooskia and Kamiah.

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This past weekend’s roadtrip took us to Jacksonville, Florida, Savannah, Georgia, Charleston and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina. But before I get into the details of those travels, it is time to take care of unfinished business…
Now two and half months removed from the trip, here’s a summary of Day 6 of our Northwest U.S. roadtrip.

Chris Kalina joined Andy and I for the two-day marathon drive from Seattle east to Montana and back. To get as far east during daylight hours, the day began before sunrise in Burien, Washington with myself loading up on coffee at 5:45 am (!). We arranged to meet Chris at a park and ride lot next to Interstate 405 at Bellevue by 6:30, but a gnarly traffic accident clogged the northbound lanes of I-405 at 6:15, causing us to get there 15 minutes late. Chris also showed up late, so all was ok, and we piled into our rental car and ventured east toward Snoqualmie Pass by 7 am.

The climb eastward into the Cascade Mountains was magnificent with layers of low clouds and fog shrouding the valleys and passes of Interstate 90.

Climbing toward the West Summit interchange (Exit 52) on Interstate 90 east. Snoqualmie Pass rises to 3,022 feet and is snow covered for most of the year. During this last day of August, the temperature was already down to 37 degrees!
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Day 5 was probably the shortest with regards to roading in the Northwest, but nonetheless full with the things that we did see. The main goal of the day was to drive Interstate 5 northward to the International Border and be back in time for dinner. From Burien we pretty much took Interstate 5 up and back, with a couple of side detours thrown in for good measure.

As mentioned previously, Interstate 5 through central Seattle features reversible express lanes and a couple of cut and cover tunnels. The freeway’s interchange with Interstate 90 is stacked, and Interstate 90 itself is double-decked.

Interstate 5 leaves the interchange with Interstate 90 and approaches downtown Seattle. The express lane split occurs ahead of the cut-and-cover tunnel sections.

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After two marathon days of driving, we got together with Chris and tooled around the Seattle and Tacoma area during day 4, and then rendezvous with Andy’s cousins in Burien.

The day started off with some typical Seattle weather, even with it being late August. A rainy mist converted into light rain and then a solid sheet of rain as we ate breakfast at a local diner in Shoreline, Washington. Since Chris had to work this day, we decided for some local road stuff before dropping him off in downtown Seattle.

First up with Interstate 5 north to Interstate 405′s northern terminus. There are end and begin signs posted on the I-405 overpasses above I-5, and the freeway itself converts into the Washington 526 freeway spur north to Washington 99. Andy’s one cousin said to us “you should never take Interstate 405 under any circumstance”, or something to that effect, because of its traffic. Even with it being around 11:30 am, traffic definitely complied with that statement. As for Washingotn 526, which technically is Washington 5-26, as Washington uses an impliled route family numbering system neaning that 500 is 5-00, 501 is 5-01, etc, it provides a continuation of “the 405″ (thanks L.A.) northward to Washington 99 at Lynwood.

Interstate 405 southbound at directional-cloverleaf interchange with Washington 522 at Bothell. Washington 522 provides a freeway spur east to Woodinville. We headed south to get out of the rain, and mother nature actually complied for all points south of Interstate 90!

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Started the morning in the quaint town of Cascade Locks, just a stone’s throw away from the Bridge of the Gods. The bridge is tolled and privately run, joining U.S. 30 in Oregon with Washington 14 just west of Stevenson. Stevenson is an equally quaint town along the north banks of the Columbia River. Washington 14 (former U.S. 830) and U.S. 30/Interstate 84 are both also paralleled by busy Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad lines.

Looking west at the Bridge of the Gods and the Columbia River from a pier at Stevenson, Washington.

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Day 1 – Portland to Vancouver, Vancouver to Eugene and Corvallis

My flight took me to Albuquerque, New Mexico as the stopover point, my first time there, and from there northwest to Portland International Airport. Coming in over the virtual desert of southeastern Oregon, the air thickened with smoke due to area wild fires and stagnent air from very hot weather. The peaks of Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams peaked above the purple haze below, and the Columbia River did not reveal itself until we sunk below the pollution deck.

After picking up checked bags, and taking the shuttle to the off-site car rental office, we headed north on Interstate 205, quickly crossing into Washington (my 42nd state at the time) en route to Matt’s house. The numbered street grid of Vancouvers transitions abruptly with the street grid of Battle Ground’s, so it took a while for us to meet up with Matt. Once we did, he showed us Mt. St. Helens from his backyard, and we had pizza at an eatery in town. Matt creates highway guides for Oregon and Washington on westcoastroads.com for those who might not know, and the three of us discussed roads, mountains, weather, etc. etc.

Although it was around 10:30 when we parted ways, Andy and I needed to get down to the Belt Line Road interchange of Interstate 5 in Eugene to clinch the freeway in Oregon. Rather than backtracking that far in the morning, we opted for it in the dark of night. Little did we know that the University of Oregon would be starting class the following week, so every motel and hotel in town was booked. Time to head back north, and check Albany, Corvallis, or Salem. Well by 0dark30, we found a place with a vacany in Corvallis, even with it being the home to the Oregon State University, which was also about to start its semester!

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