The Yellowstone Trail
Across Washington State
Before there were numbered US highways, the Yellowstone Trail route was the first coast-to-coast
automobile route that went entirely across the northern part of the United States. The route was
named the Yellowstone Trail because it was the northern route that most people traveled to reach
Yellowstone National Park.
I photographed the above scene in November, 1975, just east of Redmond, Washington. This scene
shows part of the only unaltered remnant of the Yellowstone Trail automobile route in King
County, Washington. This scene of the old Yellowstone Trail route is looking south down
present-day 196th Avenue NE from near the present-day intersection with NE 61 Place which didn't
exist in 1975. In 1983 the over one mile long brick road was designated a King County landmark and
in 1989 was carefully restored to preserve the road as a Washington State centennial project. At
present, the circa 1913 brick road looks much the same as it does in my 1975 photograph, but the
countryside has been somewhat encroached upon by urban sprawl.
The Yellowstone Trail route was established by the Yellowstone Trail Association, a grassroots
organization that formed in October 1912 as an advocate for good roads. A slogan of the
Yellowstone Trail Association, printed on route brochures, was “A Good Road From Plymouth
Rock To Puget Sound”. The Yellowstone Trail route was pieced together, connecting from
road to road, using the first existing good roads constructed across the northern part of the
United States.
Across Washington State, the Yellowstone Trail route originally was a circuitous route that was
designated by about 1915, when an improved automobile route over Snoqualmie Pass was dedicated.
Westward from Spokane, the Yellowstone Trail route originally used the old Inland Empire
Highway, which went through Rosalia, Colfax, Central Ferry, Dayton, Walla Walla, Pasco,
Kennewick, Richland, Prosser, Grandview, Yakima, Selah, Wenas, and Ellensburg.
Between Selah and Ellensburg, the Inland Empire Highway and the Yellowstone Trail route went from
Selah on the route of the 1870's stage road, up through the Wenas Valley past Chief Ow-hi's
Gardens, Wenas, and on up over the west end of Umtanum Ridge through Ellensburg Pass, and then
down through Shushuskin Canyon into the Kittitas Valley bottom. An 1880's cutoff, called the Durr
Toll Road, was also used by stagecoaches, but it was more rugged than the original 1870's stage
road, so it was not used as part of the Yellowstone Trail route.
From Ellensburg, the Yellowstone Trail route went west on the route of the Sunset Highway through
Cle Elum. The Sunset Highway originally came through Ellensburg from Spokane by way of Davenport,
Wilbur, Waterville, Wenatchee, Quincy, and Vantage, but by the early 1920's it was routed from
Wenatchee on up over Blewett Pass and down through Cle Elum. In 1925, after the later Sunset
Highway route over Blewett Pass was improved, the Yellowstone Trail route was designated as using
that more direct route from Spokane to Cle Elum.
From Cle Elum, the Yellowstone Trail route continued on the route of the Sunset Highway through
Easton, Snoqualmie Pass, North Bend, and Snoqualmie, to Fall City. At Fall City the Yellowstone
Trail route departed the original Sunset Highway route, which originally continued on through
Preston, High Point, Issaquah, Renton, and then on around the south end of Lake Washington.
From Fall City, the Yellowstone Trail route wound northwesterly generally on the route of the
present-day Redmond-Fall City Road (SR 202) to present-day 196th Avenue NE. From the Redmond-Fall
City Road, the Yellowstone Trail route turned north for about 1¼ miles on the route of
present-day 196th Avenue NE to present-day NE Union Hill Road. From there the Yellowstone Trail
route turned west and wound westerly on the routes of present-day NE Union Hill Road, NE 80th
Street, Avondale Way NE, and NE 79th Street, to Redmond Way in downtown Redmond.
From Redmond the Yellowstone Trail route continued a couple blocks or so down present-day Redmond
Way and then turned onto present-day Leary Way NE, going past the Redmond Depot on the east side
of the road and crossing the railroad tracks of the Northern Pacific Railway, Snoqualmie Branch.
From the railroad crossing, the Yellowstone Trail continued down present-day Leary Way NE and
then meandered westerly on the routes of present-day West Lake Sammamish Parkway, Old Redmond
Road, NE 70th Place, NE 70th Street, NE 72nd Place, and NE 68th Street, crossing under the tracks
of the Northern Pacific Railway, Lake Washington Belt Line. From this second railroad crossing,
the Yellowstone Trail continued on the routes of present-day NE 68th Street, State Street South,
and then down Kirkland Avenue to an automobile ferry landing on the downtown Kirkland waterfront.
Much of this early automobile route between Redmond and Kirkland was once designated as State Aid
Road No. 4.
The ferry Lincoln provided a connection across Lake Washington from Kirkland to the ferry
landing at the foot of the east end of Madison Street, in the Madison Park neighborhood of
Seattle. The ferry Lincoln was in service between Kirkland and Madison Park from 1915
until 1940, when the Lacey V. Murrow floating bridge across Lake Washington opened.
Today Madison Street still angles diagonally across Seattle, running from the location of the
old ferry landing on Lake Washington at Madison Park, directly to downtown Seattle and the
Seattle waterfront on Puget Sound.
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