Roadtrip advice: last minute edition (Eastern WA --> SLC)

July 31, 2016 12:13 AM

The fates have conspired to give me a week off with a car to myself and no plans. I am starting out in Wenatchee, WA and need to be back in 7 days to catch a train home. Given my rough draft itinerary, where should I eat and what should I see while I'm out there?

I'm trying to maximize distance traveled while also eating delicious things and seeing cool shit along the way. Would appreciate everyone's ideas, especially if you're local to the area or been through that way before. I've never been to 90% of the places this trip will be taking me. Any detours you would suggest?

Things I like: hiking / nature, cheap local food, local watering holes, off the beaten path stuff, anything that is culturally different than the PNW urban tech nightmare I am temporarily escaping from

Current tentative plan:
1. Leave ASAP
2. Take 90E to 15 (Northern ID into Montana as far as Butte)
3. Cut south to see the Grand Tetons - I have no camping gear :(
4. Take 15 or the back way down to Salt Lake City
5. See the salt flats out west on my way back
6. Take 80 to 93 to 84 and hit Twin Falls / Boise
7. Get back on 84 and return to Wenatchee

Bonus question: is it still legal to sleep overnight in your car in a Walmart parking lot? I imagine I will be doing some of that, some hostels (I'm in my late 20s), and a motel or two.

posted by Snacks to Travel & Transportation (3 answers total)

Keep an eye on each state's highway website and be ready to adjust your routing on the fly (for example, a large stretch of I-84 in Oregon is shut down at the moment because of a fire on Cabbage). That closure should be open by the time you return that way, but it is fire season and pretty much your entire route is in dry country.

For food/drink, for the most part the better options (meaning non-diner and non-chain, adjust for your personal definition of "better") are going to be in cities and larger towns -- Spokane, Missoula, Butte, SLC, and Boise all have excellent restaurants, microbreweries, and so on. Some very small towns also have nice options where you might least expect it (Baker City has a good brewery, for example), and areas on that route with large immigrant populations will almost always have excellent food trucks if you look around a bit.

Bonus question: is it still legal to sleep overnight in your car in a Walmart parking lot? I imagine I will be doing some of that, some hostels (I'm in my late 20s), and a motel or two.

I see RVs in the local Walmart all the time, so at least some allow this. On long drives I sleep at highway rest stops routinely and have never had any issues other than loud truck engines, but definitely use your common sense. If you can pick up a cheap tent and sleeping bag at a sporting goods store or Walmart, you'll have excellent and often free camping options along much of your route since so much of the west is public land, and that would be much nicer than sleeping in parking lots.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:49 AM on July 31, 2016

Here is a page with a list of the 800 Walmarts that do not allow overnight parking—the others do.

Road Food in my limited experience has proven a good site for finding good local food as opposed to fast food.
posted by little onion at 5:57 PM on July 31, 2016

Oh my gosh rural Washington has some of the best taco trucks! Like the one in a parking lot off 97 in Oroville, just south of the Canadian border. (Why yes, I do have random and oddly specific trivia about parts of the country that I've only been to a couple times.)

Also check on local festivals that might be scheduled along your route, which can have unfortunate effects on traffic.
posted by eviemath at 6:08 PM on July 31, 2016