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Moscow, Idaho — July 30-31, 2004

An event loosely organized by: HMarc and Warchild

Palouse Falls ("B" route)

202 miles, approximately 5 hours


This is the slighly twistier of the two routes to Palouse Falls, the other one is called the "A" route, for no particular reason other than to distinguish it from this one. Note: the time estimate above doesn't include the stop at Palouse Falls.
  1. Head north out of Moscow on US-95.
  2. After about 9 miles, look for SR 66 branching off to the left, towards Palouse, WA. Take it.
  3. As you enter Palouse, cross the main street and continue north on WA 27 up a short steep hill. At the top, take SR 272 to the left, towards Colfax.
  4. Colfax is notorious for it's downtown speedtrap, so keep it to 25mph! Take SR 26 west from the north end of Colfax and head towards Washtucna.
  5. About 4 miles west of Colfax, on SR 26, take the turn to the right towards Endicott -- it's right at the fairgrounds, and if you miss the turn there's another turn right after the fairgrounds.
  6. At Endicott, continue west towards Benge. The road gets kinda bumpy, but has far less traffic than SR 26 which parallels it.
  7. At Benge, turn SW towards Washtucna.
  8. Just before Washtucna, you'll have to turn left onto SR 261.
  9. At Washtucna, you might want to refuel, though you can probably wait until you get back to Lewiston. There's also a place to eat there -- turn left and head into town and you'll see a blue-green cafe off on the left. There's another cafe a few blocks further south on the main street.
  10. Head south out of Washtucna on SR 260 towards Kahlotus.
  11. About 6 miles south of Washtucna, you'll see some grain elevators in the center of the valley to your left. That's where you're going to turn left onto SR 261 towards Lyons Ferry.
  12. Watch for the left turn to Palouse Falls -- it's a couple miles of hard-packed gravel but well worth the ride!
  13. Continuing SE from Palouse Falls on SR 261, you'll cross the Snake River and follow the south bank for awhile back to the intersection with US 12.
  14. Turn left (east) on US 12 and after about 15 miles, look for the turnoff on SR 127 (you'll actually go straight) which follows a grade up a big hill directly in front of you. Take SR 127 towards Dusty.
  15. There are some nice corners here, leading you to Central Ferry, where you'll again cross the Snake River. There's a nice park to the west of the bridge if you want to take a break in the shade and rehydrate or recycle some fluids.
  16. Continue logical north on SR 127 towards Dusty and enjoy the next few miles of excellent twisties.
  17. At Dusty, turn right on SR 26 towards Colfax.
  18. The direct way back to Moscow is to go to Colfax, turn south on US 195 to Pullman, then east on SR 270 to Moscow.
  19. The more interesting route is to turn right about 6-8 miles before Colfax on the road towards Almota -- this bit of road is quite nice. I'll try to get a more accurate description of how you can find this turnoff and put it here before July...
  20. The rest of this alternative (not shown on the map above) is to turn right at the T-intersection onto Almota Road and follow it to SR 194 where you take a logical left (actually, you simply don't turn right).
  21. SR 194 will take you right back into downtown Pullman and, in fact, becomes SR 270 leading directly to the University Inn.

On this route you can safely rely on finding fuel in Moscow, Pullman, Colfax and Washtucna (there are unattended, creditcard-only pumps with all 3 grades off the main street).

Copyright © 2004, by H. Marc Lewis. All rights reserved.