Finding (or not) the Yellowstone Trail in Washington  |  Date added: 27.03.2009
From 1913(ish) till 1930(ish) the Yellowstone Trail went from coast to coast, starting in Seattle and heading east to Massachusetts. They didn't build the road, they just lobbied for good roads and put their name on the ones they liked best. This is a small stretch of it just west of Remond, WA. It is all brick. Heading east, you turn right off of Union Mill Road onto 196th Ave. Both Union Mill Road and 196th Ave were part of the Yellowstone Trail. I'm a big fan of old brick roads. There are several on Route 66 in Illinois that are very well maintained. I'm surprised this is as nice as it is. From 196th Street, you get on WA 202, via a right turn and then a U-turn. This is also the Yellowstone Trail. In a bit, the road narrows and you can get a better feel for what traveling circa 1920 would be like. The YT went through Fall City. This is a giant Salmon. Fall City seems to enjoy their history. Not only do they mark their current street names, they also note the old ones. Smartz approves of the giant fish. Leaving Falls City, heading towards Snoqualmie Falls, the road does a bit of twisting. This is always fun. We stopped at Snoqualmie Falls. No dogs are allowed, but I'm not really sure what that is in the picture. It's certainly no dog I've ever seen. Do it. I'm a pretty big fan of Twin Peaks and really didn't know that Snoqualmie Falls was the falls in the show. Imagine my surprise! The lodge in the left upper corner was also in Twin Peaks. It was the Great Northern Hotel. A tiny cave through which water travels. Most fun root system ever. At the falls. Smartz turns the crank on a penny smashing machine. And gets this for the effort (and 51 cents). Trains! in Snoqualmie. There's a pretty large railroad museum there. This was a graveyard for unusable engines. Snoqualmie station. It's rounded. Creepy. The backyard has a bunch of fun. This is a steam-powered snow plow. Building just behind the station. Getting back on the Yellowstone Trail, we're now in North Bend. This is their theater. This is North Bend Way, heading west out of town. I'm fairly sure that this is the Yellowstone Trail. Through a lot of this trip, especially the first part, I had no idea where the Yellowstone Trail was. This is off I-90, exit 38. The area was gated. There seem to be three different roads converging as one here, just north of the interstate. Was one of them the YT? No idea. Looking the other way on what I think is Homestead Valley Road. If it was the YT (or any old road), it would have continued straight here, joining the present day alignment of I-90. Or, it could be nothing at all. Now we're on an old section of US10, just south of I-90, right after exit 38. This was definitely US10, which makes it almost definitely Yellowstone Trail. Still on old US 10, here you can see the two bridges, one for each lane. I'm facing east, just off the east-bound (and down) lane. This bridge was built in 1953. The west bound lane's bridge has no date. And might be newer. Both lanes. As I went along, I took notes. Snow was certainly becoming a factor. This is just south of I-90, exit 42. It's actually a bridge crossing a creek. The bridge connects to Tinkham road, which was buried under at least two feet of snow. Was Tinkham Road part of the YT? No idea, but I'm suspecting it may have been. After exit 47, there is a road, old YT, that runs between the lanes of the interstate. This heads to Denny Creek. A few years ago, someone found an original YT marker on a bridge. That bridge was probably very snow covered today. The snow was five feet high here. And we decided to turn back. But I had to get a picture of how deep it was. They don't plow snow here, they blow it, cutting a path through it rather than pushing the snow to the side. This is literally how deep it was. They're expecting another 15 inches over the weekend. Back in I-90, this guy in an early 80's VW pick up truck was hauling quite a LOT. This is definitely YT, right off of exit 52, going over Snoqualmie Pass. The snow was piled up at least two storys high. The road was marked as YT when we came through here in October. Now, i'ts hardly marked as anything. Snow as high as the lights. Seriously. Everyone was packed in here. It's still ski season. Along WA 906 (same road as I just took pics of), the snow was very high. Not sure what they did back in the 1920's. More notes. This is south of I-90, exit 70. I believe this to be YT, heading east towards Easton. Just before this, I saw a 1920's-era bridge, just south of the interstate. I couldn't grab a pic of it, but It made me believe that this was the YT. Easton. Just east of Easton. This eventually dead-ends into I-90. Old house on YT, east of Easton. Nelson Siding Road, off of 74. Maybe YT? Nelson Siding road. Crappy segment of Nelson Siding. It eventually meets up with these two train bridges. And the I-90 bridge. This is probably the old US 10 bridge. Heading into Cle Elum on 903, probably the old YT. Here is where the later, northern alignment and the earlier southern alignment met up. US 97 headed north and then straight to Spokane via US 2. Washington Route 10 is old US 10. One pony bridge on old US 10, east of Cle Elum. Suddenly it was snowless! Ever notice how horses are ALWAYS bored? I love narrow stretches of road. Yakima River, just south of Old YT/Old US 10/modern day WA 10. I believe they used the same mile markers for WA 10 that they used for US 10. Neat! Yakima River. I apologize for not being able to tell you exactly where this is, but it's on WA 10 on the way to Ellensburg. If you ever get the chance, drive this. A great curve on the BNSF line. Old Railroad alignment across the river. And a tunnel! This is an old aquaduct, just north of WA10. Smartz loves the Yellowstone Trail! Aquaduct. Heading into Ellensburg. Museum in Ellensburg. We walked around a bit, enjoying the town. Ellensburg redid a lot of the old advertising murels. It's really nice. The puppies approve. And Smartz found fun! South of Ellensburg, the YT took a 42 mile route to Selah. There was an earlier, very rough road called Durr Road. The local area chose this road, though longer, because it was much easier for cars. The YT then chose this road to be part of the coast-to-coast route. This is modern day Umptanam Road. It later becomes N. Wenas Road. It quickly devolves into a fairly rough dirt road. But it's amazing. I loved it. Looking west towards the Cascades. I was planning on doing this on the Vespa. It wouldn't be the toughest road I've ever done, but still a bit cranky. I was expecting a pine forest. I didn't exactly get that, huh? Old, old house. This sign was posted right before entering public land, I guess. The map and everything about it was vague. The road got a bit worse, but as long as it's dry, no problem. Birch trees! And in the middle of nowhere, there is this sign. Why? Who is watching what? Hm, but some trees are gathering and there's even some snow. I got a bit worried at this point. The road got muddy, but not too bad. Funny! I finally got my pine And right before Wenas, we got a paved road! And more high desert. Twists are always fun. Lake Wenas. This was a newer cut, so the old road must have went somewhere else. Not sure where. There's an older road just below the cut, I'm betting that was it. It's not drivable as far as I can tell. Yaks. Yak yak! Wenas Road. This was an AMAZING find. This wasn't really an emegrant train, it was the Northern Pacific Railroad scouting for new ways to get across the Cascades. This McClellan is the same one from the Civil War. This was the campground. Here's more info: In 1853 he participated in the Pacific Railroad surveys, ordered by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, to select an appropriate route for the upcoming transcontinental railroad. McClellan surveyed the northern corridor along the 47th and 49th parallels from St. Paul to the Puget Sound. During this assignment, he demonstrated a tendency for insubordination toward senior political figures. Isaac Stevens, governor of the Washington Territory, became dissatisfied with McClellan's performance in scouting passes across the Cascade Range. (McClellan selected Yakima Pass without a thorough reconnaissance and refused the governor's order to lead a party through it in winter conditions, relying on faulty intelligence about the depth of snowpack in that area. He also neglected to find three greatly superior passes in the near vicinity, which would be the ones eventually used for railroads and interstate highways.) The governor ordered McClellan to turn over his expedition logbooks, but McClellan steadfastly refused, most likely because of embarrassing personal comments that he had made throughout. Just like in the Civil War. Heading into Selah. From Selah, we headed back north on WA 821. In 1931, the Inland Empire Road moved from the Yellowstone Trail road (that we were just on) to this, just east of the Yakima River to where WA 821 is today. it was US 97 for a long time as well. Here's an old chunk of the road that goes to an abandoned tunnel. It was done away with in the 1990's. We didn't go up to explore. Though, I wish we would have. This canyon was amazing. And the railroad was right next to us! So beautiful. Since this road opened in 1931 (or '36), there's no way that the Yellowstone Trail had anything to do with this, but it was still very fun. It was, however, part of the Inland Empire Highway (moved from Wenas Road when this was completed). Bathrooms at Roza ROCKS!! Great suspension foot bridge at Umtanum. Umtanum. I enjoy sage brush. It looked like we couldn't go across. But we were wrong (we didn't do anything illegal). Tracks. Smartz found a tumble weed! I'm not ok with cement railroad ties. I know it's probably better than using trees, but they could at least make them black-brown! Trail at Umtanum. Bridge again. At the end of the Canyon Road, I found this small historical marker in a creepy parking lot. It tells you a bit, but not much. And that's it! We took the interstate home. When I left for this trip. I assumed that finding the Yellowstone Trail would be as easy as finding old alignments of Route 66. I couldn't be more wrong. First, nobody has even heard of the YT. Second, locals know the same roads by other names. Nothing makes this easy. Also, history doesn't seem to be as important to folks out here as it is back east. That's a big shame. Nevertheless, it was an amazing day. Very amazing.

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