Starting to Plan Our Western Trip
Leaving around the 1st of August for a trip to the PNW. We're not a big fan of interstates and I've done coast-to-coast on both I-80 and I-90 in an earlier life, so I'm thinking about picking up US2 i...
Forum Discussion
US 2 aka "the Highline" through NoDak and the boring eastern 2/3 of Montana is one. Long. Straight. Line. With grain silos!
You have to really stretch the definition of "scenery" to tell yourself that there's anything to see there. Of course, EVERY route from the Mississippi to the Rockies passes through a thousand or more miles of nothingness. The trouble with the northern route is that the Rockies are considerably further to the west, so the nothingness drive is longer.
The good news is that US 2 deposits you right at the doorstep of Glacier Park,and from there to Kalispell, Sandpoint, Spokane, Wenatchee, and over the Cascades to Everett, you have lots of wonderful scenery. My personal preference, though, would be to veer north from Sandpoint/Newport, WA and take US 20 through North Cascades NP--mountains like you've never seen and until you get to the national park proper, no competition for campsites to speak of.
You have to really stretch the definition of "scenery" to tell yourself that there's anything to see there. Of course, EVERY route from the Mississippi to the Rockies passes through a thousand or more miles of nothingness. The trouble with the northern route is that the Rockies are considerably further to the west, so the nothingness drive is longer.
The good news is that US 2 deposits you right at the doorstep of Glacier Park,and from there to Kalispell, Sandpoint, Spokane, Wenatchee, and over the Cascades to Everett, you have lots of wonderful scenery. My personal preference, though, would be to veer north from Sandpoint/Newport, WA and take US 20 through North Cascades NP--mountains like you've never seen and until you get to the national park proper, no competition for campsites to speak of.
