Washington State Route 271

On Sunday, October 13, 2013, we drove Washington State Route 271 across the Palouse.

RCW 47.17.490
State route No. 271:

A state highway to be known as state route number 271 is established as follows:

Beginning at a junction with state route number 27 in the vicinity of Oakesdale, thence northwesterly to a junction with state route number 195 in the vicinity south of Rosalia.

It was a sunny morning in Oakesdale. SR 271 begins at the north end of town, where SR 27 branches off to the right. SR 27 behind us and SR 271 ahead of us were united as an eastern branch of PSH 3, before the great renumbering of 1964.


We followed the railroad winding through the rolling Palouse. The sun was at our backs and there was hardly another car on the road. Around about the time we unwittingly crossed from the McCoy Creek drainage to the Pine Creek drainage, we reached the halfway point of Highway 271.


Just past the old railroad depot known as McCoy, there’s a shiny new grain depot under construction, with its own looping railroad spur. Much bigger, much shinier. A quick eight miles after we started, we were done. We'd reached US 195.

It's always nice to take a peaceful morning drive in the country.