That would be the Cascade Range. November might see snow at higher elevations. to avoid that, you can head south from Spokane and pick up I84 to Portland. The Columbia River Gorge cuts a swath through the Cascades. You’re adding a day or less to the trip, but the peace of mind might be worth it.
It sounds like this won’t be an issue with the schedule you’re planning, but one thing to be aware of is that it will be very difficult to find lodging between Bismarck and Miles City because there is an oil boom going there currently. There are hotels in places like Dickinson ND and Glendive MT that are booked up for a couple of years and haven’t even been built yet.
I would say depending on what the weather is like and what your long-distance driving tolerance is, you might consider doing Bismarck to Bozeman, MT. Bismarck to Billings is way too short a day and Bismarck to Missoula is a pretty long day to the point of impossibility if the weather is bad. Bozeman is a good midway point and is before all but a very mild Rocky Mountain pass, so you can be nice and rested before the worst (but prettiest) part of your drive, and will catch most of the passes during daylight.
From there, driving Bozeman to Vancouver would be a long but doable day. What I would plan on there is try to do it in a sitting, but plan on just grabbing a hotel in Ellensburg or Seattle if the weather is bad or you’re getting tired. The passes on I90 and US2 do get closed due to snow semi-regularly, so leaving things flexible on that portion of your journey would be a very good idea. Worst case, you have to swing down through I-84 where the Columbia River has thoughtfully blasted a notch through the mountains. Nanny-state Washington also requires you carry chains at all times during winter in the mountains and will occasionally make chains required over the pass, enforced by roadblocks. If you have a set of cable chains, you might want to toss 'em in the car although with Canadian license plates I’m sure you could plead ignorance if you get pulled over.
Oh, also, have a good trip!
I have driven that route round trip twice in the past two years. Eraly November is almost ideal as construction season is over but the snow hasn’t fallen yet. As far as snow, the pass from Butte to Missoula would be the worst, but the truck traffic should keep the road clear. I90 in Washington only closes for avalanches in late Winter (once you drive through you will see why).
Rush hour traffic in Seattle is a real pain. If you get to Issaquah WA after 4PM I’d stop and have dinner and wait until 6PM before continuing west. The morning rush hour is 7:30-9 AM . 405 Bypass is hardly any help beacuse the Bellevue Redmond traffic.
Have fun!
Good information from the last three posters. this is exactly the kind of detail I like to know. I have every intention of getting chains because sooner or later I will be doing other mountain trecks so I will get them before I go. More later
Don’t you mean the pass between Missoula, MT and Coeur d’Alene, ID?
If by chance you find yourself stopping in Great Falls, Montana, on your way west, give us a heads-up. Great Falls is only a couple of hours south of me, and it would be easy enough to organize a micro-Dope. (Just thinking of when I couldn’t stop in Thunder Bay a couple of years ago. :))
Anyway, sounds like you’re getting a lot of good advice. Have a safe trip!
I assume he means Homestake Pass, which is east of Butte. It’s pretty much flat from Butte to Missoula. Homestake is the steepest pass on I-90 (and where it crosses the Continental Divide), but Lookout Pass between Missoula and CdA tends to get more snow.
Oh, one other tidbit of (possibly outdated) advice is that when I used to go from Seattle to Vancouver, at Bellingham I would head east and use one of the smaller crossings instead of the zoo that is the main I-5 crossing at Blaine. Half the time I would just get wave-throughs at those stations, whereas I never failed to get a grilling of some sort at Blaine. I haven’t been up there since the new passport rules came into place though, so that might not be true any more.
Cool Spoons, I will consider that.
I am bumping this thread as my travel dates are approaching fast. Are there any updates on the wonderful information GreasyJack, Chefguy, etc?
I am leaving either Saturday Nov. 3rd or Sunday Nov. 4th.
Question to those of you well familiar with I-90 and I-94. During our trip from Washington to Minnesota a few years ago we stopped to fuel up at a small “town” in Montana that was basically one very short street, if I recall correctly, and besides the gas station maybe had a post office or some other similar thing. I don’t recall if we took I-90 or i-94 but I kick myself for not writing down the name of the town. I think it had under 100 population, or maybe just over.
Hm. We took I-90 across the country this summer, including the full width of Montana. What you describe is dotted all over the Montana countryside. There are probably a couple dozen places that fit your description.
Yeah, you’ll have to be a LOT more specific: east or west of Billings? On or off the main highway? Much of Montana is sparsely populated.
I wish I could remember which side of Billings it was. I just remember it was right off the highway. I didn’t realize it was not an anomaly to have a town so tiny in that area.
That sounds a lot like Custer.
And, yeah, towns that size aren’t an anomaly in that part of the world, but towns that size that have an Interstate off-ramp and fuel are!
No, not really.
More frequent than North Dakota, anyway.
Really? Then find me some other examples of towns on the Interstate that’s fewer with fewer than 10 blocks but an offramp and a gas station. I used to drive the western half of the OP’s drive about 30 times a year and I can think of maybe one or two other towns like that, but usually the really microscopic towns don’t have gas. A lot of times it looks like a little town is nothing but a gas station because the actual town is built along the railroad or an old highway that got bypassed by the Interstate.
Really remote micro-towns on the 2-lanes often have a small gas station with an antique pump or two, but on the Interstates where fuel scarcity isn’t an issue, they usually don’t.