These fall road trips will have you packing your bags again.
Cover photo courtesy Shallan Knowles
After a slow start to getting out there this summer, we managed to pack a ton of adventures in to the last few months. By the time we started putting this issue together in August, I was feeling ready for some down time at home, you know, finishing our three-year house painting project, finally organizing the garage, or getting out to ride our local trails that take off only a few minutes from home.
That is, until I started reading and editing many of the articles in this year’s Fall Road Trips Guide. Suddenly my September is full not with trips to Home Depot and fixing the crumbling foundation on our 120-year-old tiny home, but more adventures in the Kootenays, Wallowas, the Colville National Forest and other to-hard-to-resist destinations only a few hours from Spokane!
Wanderlust is a thing, for sure, and I’ve I had a life-long bad case of it. No sooner do I swear off the endless packing and unpacking, deferring work and life maintenance, and shoving life’s responsibilities to the sidelines that goes along with fitting in as many trips as possible into an already-full life than I find myself scheduling another bikepacking suffer fest or hot springs road trip to British Columbia. It’s these trips, I’ve found over the years, that make life feel expansive and full of possibility, and with few exceptions, they’re always worth it.
This year’s Fall Road Trips Guide features many Northwest favorite destinations, some with new draws, like a ton of freshly-built mountain bike trails around the Nelson, B.C. area or hike recommendations close to Ainsworth Hot Springs Resort that you may never have heard of. It also covers super-intriguing celebrations of local culture, like the UMANI Festival in Moses Lake, Wash., that honors the region’s Hispanic people and heritage; music festivals like RED Mountain’s Between the Peaks fest up in Rossland, B.C.; and the ‘90s Flannel Fest, a tribute to grunge rock bands at the Grant County Fairgrounds.
The guide also highlights some fall road trip ideas that are off the beaten path, including peak-bagging with mountain goats near Sandpoint, Idaho; drinking craft beer and rubbing elbows with artists in Enterprise and Joseph, Ore.; tasting the fall harvest and experiencing the local creative scene in Twisp, Wash.; and exploring the architectural and cultural legacy of the Doukhabors, a religious community with Russian roots that immigrated to the Castlegar, B.C. area in the 1900s.
We live in a mind-blowing spot in this vast, wild world, and there’s never enough time to get out and explore it all. We hope this guide points you in the right direction for your next outdoor recreation or cultural adventure. It will probably be worth sidelining those real-life responsibilities like house painting (again). Now find your destination and start packing!
Sponsored
