Palouse Scenic Byway

State: Washington
Length: 218.5 mi / 351.6 km
Time to Allow: Four and a half hours, but allow at least three days to fully experience the byway.

Don't forget your camera for your journey through the patchwork quilt of rolling hills known as the Palouse. The picturesque landscape boasts hundreds of miles of undulating hills and farms interspersed with rural communities. Majestic buttes offer spectacular panoramic vistas and wildlife viewing. Journey farther west to the Channeled Scablands for a dramatic waterfall that plunges 198 feet. Changing with the seasons, the Palouse offers unparalleled beauty any time of year.

Stories

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  Palouse Scenic Byway Overview

  Aug 5, 2005

  A patchwork landscape of greens, browns, and yellows warmly welcomes you to the picturesque Palouse Scenic Byway. The Palouse is well known for its four distinct seasons, but if you ask the old timers about the best time to daytrip through the Palouse, most likely their answer will be "springtime." Regardless of the season, grab your camera and binoculars, don your most comfortable clothes, fill up your gas tank, and prepare yourself for hidden treasures and pleasant surprises. As you wind through this peaceful pastoral route, keep in mind the dramatic and sometimes violent forces of nature that shaped the Palouse Scenic Byway over thousands of years.

Road Trips

• 1-Day Trip: From Chaos Comes Beauty
  (Washington)

  The tranquil landscape of the Palouse is the product of some of the most catastrophic events recorded in the geologic record: large-scale lava...