Palouse Scenic Byway
Palouse Scenic Byway is a State Scenic Byway in Washington. Within Washington it covers roughly 190 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Palouse Scenic Byway with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
This byway winds through the Palouse of southeastern Washington, a region of deep, rolling hills of windblown soil planted in wheat and lentils that ripple toward the horizon like green or golden dunes. The view from atop Steptoe Butte, an ancient quartzite knob rising above the farmland, takes in the patterned hills for miles and is a magnet for landscape photographers. The contoured fields change color through the growing season.
- rolling Palouse wheat hills
- Steptoe Butte
- patterned farmland
- photographer's landscape
- southeastern Washington
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Places to stop along Palouse Scenic Byway
Steptoe Battlefield State Park Heritage Site
A small park and monument in Rosalia marking the 1858 battle in which Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, and Palouse warriors forced Col. Edward Steptoe's troops to retreat.
Barron Flour Mill
The last intact flour mill on the Palouse, a wooden mill in Oakesdale run by one family for nearly a century.
Steptoe Butte State Park Heritage Site
A quartzite butte you can drive to the top of, looking down on endless rolling wheat hills; photographers come at sunrise and sunset for the shadows.
WebsiteCodger Pole
A 65-foot chainsaw-carved pole in Colfax honoring a 1988 rematch of a 1938 high school football game, played by the same men fifty years on.
Pullman
Home of Washington State University, where you can try Cougar Gold, the canned cheddar made on campus, and see the grizzlies at the bear research center.
WebsiteDahmen Barn
A 1935 dairy barn near Uniontown surrounded by a fence of more than a thousand old iron wheels, now an artisan center and gallery.
Palouse Falls State Park Heritage Site
Washington's official state waterfall, a 198-foot plunge into a basalt bowl carved by the Ice Age floods, best in spring when the river runs high.
Website
Where to Stay along Palouse Scenic Byway
No campgrounds are listed close to Palouse Scenic Byway yet, but there are rooms near the route.
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What is a State Scenic Byway?
State Scenic Byways are roads a state has formally recognized for their scenic, natural, historic or cultural value — each state's own curated collection of drives worth taking slowly.