Southeast

Southeast Washington covers the seven counties between the Snake and the Columbia — Adams, Asotin, Columbia, Franklin, Garfield, Walla Walla, Whitman. The terrain is the Palouse: rolling loess hills planted in winter wheat and lentils, running from the basalt scablands east to the deeper ridges along the Snake River breaks at the Idaho border. Walla Walla anchors the south as the wine-country capital and the home of Whitman College; Pullman holds Washington State University in the heart of the Palouse in Whitman County; Pasco sits at the Tri-Cities corner where the Snake meets the Columbia in Franklin County; Clarkston in Asotin faces Lewiston, Idaho, across the Snake at Hells Canyon’s mouth; Dayton, Pomeroy, and Waitsburg run the small-town corridor along US-12 between Walla Walla and the Snake. Trips here usually anchor on Walla Walla wine country, the Snake River, or the Palouse drive. The Walla Walla AVA holds well over 100 wineries within county lines; the Snake River Canyon and Lewiston-Clarkston offer jet-boat access into Hells Canyon; Steptoe Butte and the Palouse Falls drives handle landscape photography. Spring through fall is the working window.