urg the Sunset Highway connects with the Inland Empire Road, a
southern route to Spokane via Walla Walla. Following the Wenas Valley to
North Yakima, it continues southeast through the Union Gap and along the
Sunnyside Canal, the largest irrigation ditch in the state, where a
splendid view of the valley, with Mount Hood in the distance appears.
From Prosser, county seat of Benton county and entrance to the Horse
Heaven country, the road drops toward the Columbia river and soon
reaches Kennewick, the home of early strawberries, and Pasco, county
seat of Franklin county.

[Illustration: LOWER SPOKANE FALLS, AND BRIDGE WITH SECOND LARGEST
CONCRETE ARCH IN THE WORLD.

Photo by Frank Palmer.]

From here the Central Washington Highway threads the extensive wheat
fields toward the northeast, passing through Connell, Lind, Ritzville,
and Sprague, all important wheat shipping centers; and Cheney, the site
of another state normal, fifteen miles southwest from the city of
Spokane.

The Inland Empire Highway leads on to the beautiful city of Walla Walla;
but at Dayton, the quaint county seat of Columbia county, it divides,
uniting again near Rosalia, twenty-five miles south of Spokane. The
shorter route trends northeast, crosses the Snake at Pataha and passes
through Colfax, county seat of Whitman county, in the rich Palouse
Valley. The other branch penetrates extensive barley and wheat fields,
enters Pomeroy, county seat of Garfield county, and Clarkston, on the
eastern boundary line, named for the great explorer. Bending northward
it transects irrigated lands and wheat fields; enters Pullman, home of
the State College, Palouse, Garfield and Oakesdale; joins the other
branch at the county boundary line and soon reaches the southern
outskirts of Spokane.

[Illustration: INLAND EMPIRE HIGHWAY, TEN MILES EAST OF WALLA WALLA.]

From Spokane this road presses northward through the Colville Valley to
the Columbia, and thence to the international boundary line, having
previously passed at Deer Park the Arcadia orchard, largest commercial
apple orchard in the world; Loon Lake, a summer resort; Chewelah, a
mining town surrounded by a dairying country; and Colville, county seat
of Stevens county and largest city in this section. A pleasant contrast
is this northern extension, regaining the mountains and evergreen
forests, the swiftly flowing rivers with glorious waterfalls, and the
chains of lakes adorning irrigated vales and green m