Rolling hills of Palouse
I finally made it to Palouse in 2018!
A photographer’s paradise, it’s allure is it’s agriculture bounty – it’s seemingly endless rolling hills of wheat, lentils, chickpeas and barley in various shades of green and brown.
I have had Palouse in my bucket list for about 7 years now – I have tried signing up for photo workshops in the past, but they never panned out since the region is a full 5 hours drive east of Seattle, and there are tons of other great things to do nearby, making it hard to fit into an itinerary.
Most of my pictures here are from a telephoto lens taken atop Steptoe Butte. At a 3000+ feet elevation, the butte offers sweeping views of Palouse.
Hunting for Red Barns
I feel all photography has elements of OCD to it, repeatedly & compulsively hunting for the best light, and a better version of the same photo
While in Palouse, it became imperative that I hunt for red barns that stand out against the green fields…and hunt I did…over hours and hours of driving through this serene and pastoral landscape
Palouse Falls
Palouse falls used to be a hidden jewel in the remote Washington hinterlands known only to the photographer community. However, it’s declaration as a state park in 2014 changed all that, and now tourists flock to it in hundreds of thousands.
But do be extra cautious here. Located in the middle of nowhere, this 200 feet dramatic falls is known to claim lives. The spectacle of the falls is so large that it does not even fit fully in an ultra wide angle lens. You are lured into charting your own viewpoint at the edge of the cliff, and this can be extremely dangerous as it is very windy, and a sheer drop to the falls below. Swimming in the falls is equally precarious as well with the massive churn of the falls creating unmanageable currents.
There are very limited facilities at the park. The area around the park is mostly desert area with a few farms and horses around.
Trouble at the Steptoe Butte
Most of the pictures of Palouse are taken from one of the two buttes that give you elevation shots – Steptoe Butte or Kamiak Butte. Of the two, Steptoe Butte is the most popular. I had a sunset set aside from here, and was rushing to make it up to the top to get setup for the shots. As I turned in to the ‘Steptoe Butte State Park’ road from ‘Hume’ road, the dashboard lit up with ‘Loss of Air Pressure’! Turns out, I had a flat. To make matters worse, there was no spare in my rental. I was in a remote place – 35 miles from my hotel, 17 miles from the nearest town, and on Memorial Day long weekend after business hours on a Sunday!
It only gets worse – in an effort to be frugal, I had rented a dinky dwarf of a car from the cheapest deal on priceline! Turns out, the cheapest deal was from a rental car company (Sixt) that had no presence in Washington state, save Seattle where I had rented from. This limited my options further. All I could do was to have AAA tow my car to my hotel, and have Sixt send me a replacement car sent from Seattle, a full 12 hours later. What a wasted opportunity.
My takeaway from the experience – if you are planning to drive in remote country, do get a half decent car from a rental car company that is more widespread in the state you’re planning to drive.
Here are some sunset photos from the next day.
How to get here
Pullman, WA is right in the middle of Palouse and is a five hour drive from Seattle: