Not that remote, really. Especially for someone from the prairies. You guys will drive a hundred miles just for breakfast, right?
The Palouse is right nearby, too.
Don't know when you're going, but it will be HOT there now.
The fast food places are 1-2 hours apart in my state, and you are right I think nothing of driving 300-400 miles on a weekend. There's a steam engine (locomotive) that will be running at twilight next week on the other end of my state, and I'm thinking of driving out there after lunch, setting up flash and taking a shot, then driving home without missing work. Total distance about 750 miles.
It's been hitting 95-100 here, so I guess we're acclimated. The year I moved to South Dakota it was 105 in July, snowed the third week of September, and was 22F below zero by third week of December. We are hardy people.
Palouse interests me, but it's farther south than we want to drive (and I like to find places less photo'd.) Plan is to spend a day photo'ing downtown Seattle again with Leica IIIc (bum camps, syringes on the sidewalks, and RSL approved street stuff), drive up Whidbey Island & north on ferry, drive to Cascades NP to hike to a couple of glaciers, then back down through Scab Lands, stay in Yakima, and then back to Redmond. I have a 1932 Voigtlander Bergheil--same camera my hero Brassai used, and six plate holders. It's a compact 6.5x9cm view camera with a Heliar 105mm lens. I have some glass plates (dry plates) for it and plan is to photo Scab Lands with that. It looks like a good place to shoot black & white, and glass plates give a very unique look.
Won't spend more than a day in Scab Lands. Mid August, prairie temps might be the same as what we left.
Kent in SD