After that we mosied on over to Palouse Falls which was about another 30 miles further. You take 260 out of Washtucna, then turn left onto 261 until you see the sign for Palouse Falls State Park. I have only been there one other time and as before, there were quite a lot of people there. It's really an out of the way park. If it wasn't for the sign you'd never know its there, but it's one of the most interesting falls in the state. The Palouse River winds its way into the area then drops nearly 200 feet into this round, cul-de-sac like pool. I asked the owner of Sonny's in Washtucna how the falls were this time of year and she said "chocolatey." But that is as good a description as any since the river picks up tons of dirt from the winter runoff and is pretty brown, but the volume of water moving is pretty spectacular. The river moves on through a pretty rocky canyon. The Palouse tribe originally called the falls "Aput Aput" which means "falling water", but the name was later changed to its present name to honor Palouse tribal culture.
As pretty as the falls were, it was 4pm and time and head out before it got too cold. Leaving the park we got back onto 261 heading south, crossing the Snake river about 20 minutes later on our way to Starbuck. Then after gettin on to 12 which connects us to 127, we crossed the Snake again at Central Ferry 30 minutes after crossing the the previous time. From 127 we joined 26 and rode into Colfax where we gassed up for the final ride home which due to the lateness of the day, decided to just take the "slab" (otherwise known as 195) back to Spokane.
My final mileage was 288 miles which was a pretty good day's riding. Even though it was a bit on the chilly side, good gear and grip heaters carried the day.
Tom Clark
I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Intellitect, living in Spokane, Washington. I also do a little development work on the side. And I love riding motorcycles all over the country with my friends.
