Our exploration today was laid out by me and that may not have been a real good idea. We started the loop by driving into the Washington town of Newport and turning counterclockwise. From US-2, which is the main street of Newport, we turned onto WA-20 and started northwest.
We soon came to the town of Usk where there are more letters in the town’s spelling than buildings. We then turned west on what started out as McKenzie Road. McKenzie soon disappeared and became Flowery Trail Road. Flowery Trail is a twisty path with some gradual slopes leading up to a low pass (4041′) before dropping down the west side of the ridge. There are scattered residences out here that are very pretty and quite orderly. Only some of them appear to be used year ’round. The dense forest on each side of the road has mature second-growth timber that is dark green and very healthy looking. Near the ridge there are some gorgeous views back into the Pend Oreille River valley.
Once we got over the hill, we descended to a small town called Chewelah that I can spell but not necessarily pronounce. Chewelah is very pretty with well-maintained older wood buildings and beautiful flower displays that have been installed dangling from the main drag’s streetlight columns. It looks like it would be a nice place to live.
In Chewelah we turned south on US-395. In this part of the world, US-395 passes through mostly very healthy looking pasture with occasional lakes along the highway. There are big patches of conifer and hardwood tree clumps that seem to separate the parcels and farms. We spotted an enormous field of sunflowers but most of the land appears to be used for cattle and horses.
We continued down 395 until we got to the village of Deer Park where we turned east onto Deer Park – Milan Road through more rolling agricultural land and Milan where the road became Milan – Elk Road that led us back to our RV spot near Newport.
The drive today took us through some very pretty but mostly unremarkable territory. We saw few animals other than the domesticated variety. Maybe I am becoming scenery-jaded because we have passed through so much gorgeous country in the last few months in the Great Basin and the Rockies. I need to readjust my thinking because there is certainly nothing ugly about this part of the USA. I think I will start readjusting right now with a big glass of Jack Daniel’s.
We shot a couple pix today. See them by clicking here