From here the Central Washington Highway threads the extensive wheat fields toward the northeast, passing through Connell, Lind, Ritzville, and Sprague, all important wheat shipping centers; and Cheney, the site of another state normal, fifteen miles southwest from the city of Spokane.
The Inland Empire Highway leads on to the beautiful city of Walla Walla; but at Dayton, the quaint county seat of Columbia county, it divides, uniting again near Rosalia, twenty-five miles south of Spokane. The shorter route trends northeast, crosses the Snake at Pataha and passes through Colfax, county seat of Whitman county, in the rich Palouse Valley. The other branch penetrates extensive barley and wheat fields, enters Pomeroy, county seat of Garfield county, and Clarkston, on the eastern boundary line, named for the great explorer. Bending northward it transects irrigated lands and wheat fields; enters Pullman, home of the State College, Palouse, Garfield and Oakesdale; joins the other branch at the county boundary line and soon reaches the southern outskirts of Spokane.
INLAND EMPIRE HIGHWAY, TEN MILES EAST OF WALLA WALLA.
From Spokane this road presses northward through the Colville Valley to the Columbia, and thence to the international boundary line, having previously passed at Deer Park the Arcadia orchard, largest commercial apple orchard in the world; Loon Lake, a summer resort; Chewelah, a mining town surrounded by a dairying country; and Colville, county seat of Stevens county and largest city in this section. A pleasant contrast is this northern extension, regaining the mountains and evergreen forests, the swiftly flowing rivers with glorious waterfalls, and the chains of lakes adorning irrigated vales and green meadows.
OLYMPIC, NATIONAL PARK AND OTHER HIGHWAYS.
ANACORTES ROAD.
The Olympic Highway, when the few miles from Bogachiel to Lake Quiniault, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, are completed, will form a complete loop around the Olympic Peninsula, from which it derives its name. Winding along at the foot of the mountains, it connects the leading cities of the district and exposes some of the most scenic features of the Sound country, including Hood Canal, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Grays Harbor, and occasionally the Pacific Ocean. The principal cities touched at are Shelton, Port Townsend, Port Angeles, Hoquiam, Aberdeen, Elma and Olympia.
The National Park Highway extends from Tacoma to Rainier National Park, whence it bears southward to the headwaters of the Cowlitz, crosses to the Chehalis Valley and, after connecting with Chehalis and Centralia, leads southwest, over the low coast range to Raymond and South Bend on Willapa Bay, and from there continues to the mouth of the Columbia.