Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Washington State Route 131



On Saturday, September 3, 2011, I drove the very short but sceninc Washington State Route 131.

RCW 47.17.262
State route No. 131
:
A state highway to be known as state route number 131 is established as follows:

Beginning at the Gifford Pinchot national forest boundary south of Randle, thence northerly to a junction with state route number 12 in Randle.


SR 131 @ Pinchot National Forest
Beginning at the northern end of the lengthy Forest Service Road 25 that will take you to Spirit Lake and Mount St. Helens, Highway 131 is about to leave the forest in more ways than one.

SR 131 south of Randle
The forest ends and the highway cruises across the farmland of the Cowlitz River's Big Bottom. A mile later, we're at the halfway point of SR 131, which happens to be at the intersection with Forest Service Road 23, which will take you past Mount Adams to Trout Lake. We so happened to spend the night in Trout Lake, but we didn't take Road 23! Be careful at this intersection because you don't have the right-of-way...

SR 131 @ US 12
Another mile later, we've crossed the Cowlitz River, entered the town of Randle, and come to the end of SR 131 at US Highway 12.

Plenty of wide-open views of the surrounding hills across the farmland. Two quick miles.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

trying to plan a bike trip with panniers. would this be a good road to bike from Randle to Carson

Sotosoroto said...

The state highway only goes a couple miles. The forest service and county roads keep going all the way to Carson. It's paved the whole way, at least. You can look at it with Google StreetView.