CLE ELUM?

June – July, 2021

The extremely high temperatures in the Pacific Northwest have finally somewhat broken. Coeur d’Alene and Spokane will continue to experience record-breaking summer heat, but for the next several days highs will only reach the mid-90s – it was around 72 by 8am the morning we continued our journey west. The high temperatures across the farmland and plains of eastern Washington would follow the pattern expected in Coeur d’Alene and Spokane, but once reaching the foothills of the Cascade Range there’d be a 10-15 degree drop. Positively chilly!

We’re on our way from Coeur d’Alene, or rather Post Falls, Idaho, to the Olympic Peninsula. We’ll have 2 stops before settling in at our campground in Sequim, Washington; one preferred stop in Cle Elum and the other, because of the July 4th weekend in Shelton, our campground in Sequim was fully booked (and we tried to make the reservation in January!) until after the holiday weekend.

It’s roughly 220 miles from the Idaho/Washington border to Cle Elum; 150 miles of which are the aforementioned farmland and plains. BUT 60 miles east of our destination Vantage Hill awaits. The unwary westbound traveler is faced with an unrelenting uphill 10.9 miles with a 0.40 mile elevation change from Vantage, Washington to the Ryegrass Rest Stop at the summit. Although there are brief stretches that flatten out somewhat, stopping unless absolutely necessary would destroy any momentum the vehicle has in pulling up the hill, making it almost impossible to reach the summit. RV Diesel Pushers and Gassers alike struggle up the western grade. Even the Washington Department of Transportation recognizes the long pull of Vantage Hill recommending a stop to allow your vehicle to cool down once you make it to the rest stop. We have to admit that Aimee was tormented during the climb and ran between 10-15 mph at 4500-5000 rpm for quite a bit of the ascent. Brian was afraid of the transmission breaking apart or throwing a piston, but Aimee came through as the champ she is – no harm/no foul!

Cle Elum is a city in Kittitas County, Washington on the upper Yakima River, about 83 miles east of Seattle. For centuries, the land was inhabited by the Kittitas band of the Yakama Tribe, who used the word Tle-el-Lum, meaning swift water, for the nearby Cle Elum River. The first non-Indian settlers arrived in 1883 developing industry – working the coal mines and logging the vast forests. Unfortunately these industries had faded by the early 1960s, but due to Cle Elum’s location along Interstate 90 in the foothills of the Cascade Range, tourism and recreation (skiing) became mainstays in support of the town.

We had hoped to be able to camp in Cle Elum and drive to North Cascades National Park, but our heat-delayed departure from Post Falls caused postponement of visiting the Park – oh well, another time.

Our Mesa friends, Jack and Chris, know Cle Elum well. Jack had gone to college close by, they had lived in Yakima (60 miles south southeast) for quite some time, and had camped throughout the region with their children. Jack had a strong recommendation for pizza in nearby Roslyn (more about that later), and both agreed that the Cle Elum bakery and Owen’s Meats were 2 must stops in town.

The population of Cle Elum as of the 2018 census was 2004, and as with other small towns we had spent time in, the downtown was busy and thriving. Cle Elum and South Cle Elum are separated by the (you guessed it) Cle Elum River, a tributary of the Yakima River. Main Street is lined with small businesses; residential dwellings begin around each and every corner.

Opened in 1906, owned and operated by 3 generations of the same family, this is a traditional bakery offering “homemade” breads, deserts, breakfast sandwiches, coffee and (!) donuts. Jack and Chris thought the donuts were excellent so we just had to order up a half dozen, and somehow a loaf of French bread found its way into our purchase as well. The bakery goods were fresh, and the bread wonderful. Given the build-up there was some disappointment as we felt the donuts were just ok – nothing to get too excited about.

“The Candy Store For The Carnivore.”

On the other hand should you be in the area or near one of their meat machines (!), Owens Meats is worth going out of your way to find. Sure they will butcher your freshly dressed game…but that’s for the locals and visiting hunters.

Opened in 1887, 2 years before Washington became a state, Owens Meats is a purveyor of some of the best looking cuts of meat I’ve seen in a long time – well marbled beef and leaner less expensive cuts, well trimmed pork and lamb, choice looking chicken and fresh homemade polish/bratwurst/Italian/smoked/cheddarwurst/apple link sausage; smoked and/or marinated meats, jerky, meat sticks and pepperoni (sold by the foot) as well as mustards, marinades and seasoning mixes were all on display and just wanting to follow us home. I’d love to report that we spent our children’s inheritance at Owen’s Meats, but our freezer in Aimee is just too small. We did settle on a foot of jalapeno smoked pepperoni, and a half pound of their “good stuff” – a delicious blend of the various varieties of jerky, pepperoni and meat sticks tossed together with cheddar and pepper jack cheese. Yum!

How about that aforementioned Meat Machine? Owens Meats has placed their meat machines at 18 locations in Yakima, Cle Elum, Seattle and Tacoma. The machines vend processed meat products…their jerky, pepperoni, meat sticks, and bags of the “good stuff.” Enjoy meat? These machines provide a fix for the carnivore in each of us.

We checked out Atlas Obscura, and identified 4 pretty cool places to visit: Leavenworth Bavarian Village, Dick and Jane’s Spot, the Statute of Washoe the Chimpanzee, and Stephen Ristine’s Wheelbarrow Tree.

Ellensburg is 25 miles east of Cle Elum on Interstate 90.

Washoe the Chimpanzee lived in Ellensburg on the campus of Central Washington University with four other chimpanzees. She and her companions were subjects in an animal research experiment on animal language acquisition at The University and were the first non-humans to learn to communicate using American Sign Language (ASL), learning approximately 350 signs. The chimpanzees came to use ASL to actively communicate with each other as well as with humans. Washoe is special as she was the first chimpanzee to engage as a teacher, and taught sign language to other chimpanzees as well as her offspring. She passed away in 2007.

Leavenworth, Washington is 52 miles north of Cle Elum, and was a mountain town through which rails were laid in support of a thriving timber industry. But within a half-a-century the railroad found alternative more lucrative routes and the Leavenworth line was abandoned – the timber industry and its jobs followed. Leavenworth teetered on the brink of failure for decades as people left and the streets emptied. In the 1960s, in a rather remarkable example of communal effort, the town decided to become a seasonal tourist destination. The snowcapped mountains and miles of natural beauty reminded locals of the Bavarian Alps, and a risky development involving the total reconstruction of the town into an Alpine Mountain Town was undertaken: innkeepers and shop owners on main street redesigned buildings from head to toe, inside and out, in the style of the Bavarian Villages “of old.” Using themes related to Bavarian history and marketing the uniqueness of its festivals the novelty of the town caught on. Quite simply the plan worked. 

In 1978 Dick Elliot and Jane Orleman bought a home in Ellensburg and, as artists, began decorating their yard with a colorful collection representative of their work. Dick and Jane as well as other “outdoor” folk artists throughout the Pacific Northwest contributed to their outdoor art “garden.” Paintings, sculptures, bottle trees, geometric abstractions and recognizable patterns using reflectors are on unobstructed display for visitors to enjoy.

One statue is a source of controversy though – seeming to greet the town’s officers of the law with her gregarious smile and suggestive pose, “Big Red” is a topless statue that directly faces the Elensburg Police Department building!

Stephen Ristine’s Wheelbarrow Tree, or more properly, Stephen and MaryJane’s Home is a crazy accumulation of found stuff (no other words will do!) tossed together inside and out of a basic cabin that had been used by the US Forestry Service Superintendent, had been bought for $1 by Stephen and MaryJane from the federal government, and has been their home for the past 30 years or more. Stephen is a handyman and contractor who restores/flips the small (we’re talking 500 square feet or less) single-family homes that can be found all over this region of the Country. Whatever he finds he saves. Out of respect for their privacy Brian didn’t take pictures inside the house, but as you enter there are 3 female mannequins dressed in military uniforms holding loaded rifles; the kitchen boasts a wood-burning cookstove, an industrial floor scale and clock that could be used on a city hall building, and the basement is 2+ stories tall and houses an amazing amount of tools (including over 100 hammers, 50 or so logging axes and saws), enough hardware to compete with Lowes or Home Depot, a weapons room, and an emergency escape door. By the way, the only reason Brian was able to see the basement was that he asked how Stephen and MaryJane stayed cool during the recent extreme heat wave – “come look” says Stephen. The basement was damp, but at least 25-30 degrees cooler than topside. We had come to see the Wheelbarrow Tree, but Stephen and MaryJane were outside and since we were asking to be on their property we felt it proper to ask permission – a conversation was struck up and the tour commenced.

Stephen let us know that the “Tree” was started on a whim – his family had an accumulation of wheelbarrows that were just laying around rusting. Once the “Tree” was begun people started dropping off wheelbarrows in his yard. The project “took off,” and is now in its second and third generations. For a more thorough look at the Wheelbarrow Tree check out the YouTube video “starring” Stephen by googling Wheel Barrow Tower of Cle Elum.

We found so much more than a Wheelbarrow Tree. Thank you again Atlas Obscura!

3.5 miles northwest of Cle Elum is Roslyn, Washington. Remember our mentioning Jack, who went to school at Central Washington University? He told us that we needed to visit Roslyn for 3 reasons: the opening and many scenes from the TV series Northern Exposure was filmed there; Village Pizza was top notch (and Jack is a foodie), and back in the day, 1973, a friend of his “streaked” The Brick Saloon and cracked the bar by jumping up onto it. By the way, The Brick Saloon claims to be Washington’s oldest continuously operating bar.

On Barbara’s bucket list was a trip to Snoqualmie Falls – 55 miles west of Cle Elum and right off of Interstate 90. Mother Nature sure cooperated with us while we were on our way to The Falls

It is considered the most famous waterfall in Washington, and year after year is the most visited. Snoqualmie Falls is 268-feet high with the width ranging from 50-to-150 feet, depending on water levels. There’s an upper observation area which does give a nice view of the falls. There’s a short hike down to the river and then an easy walk to the end of a boardwalk that affords a chance to enjoy the forest and a different view of Snoqualmie Falls.

From the upper observation deck…

…and along the trail…

…from the lower observation deck…

We had figured on Cle Elum to be a quiet stop-over before we excitedly made our long-awaited journey into the Olympic Peninsula. Boy, how WRONG we were!

Barbara and Brian

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.“ – Henry David Thoreau