Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
wine industry. New wineries have been popping up as fast as champagne corks
on New Year's Eve, making this town the single best locale in the state for a few
days of wine touring. The explosion of wineries has also brought on something
of a downtown renaissance that includes a restored historic hotel, new restau-
rants, and a few wine bars.
Before there was wine, it was onions that made Walla Walla famous (well,
maybe not exactly famous). The Walla Walla onion is a big sweet variety, simi-
lar to the Vidalia onion of Georgia, and owes its sweetness not to sugar but to a
high water content and a low sulfur content. These onions, which can weigh as
much as 2 pounds, are legendary around the Northwest as the very best onions
for putting on burgers at summer barbecues. Between June and August each
year, produce stands all over the area sell big bags of these sweet onions. There's
even a Walla Walla Sweet Onion Festival here in early July.
This is also a college town with three schools of higher learning: Walla Walla
College, Whitman College, and Walla Walla Community College. Due in large
part to these colleges, the town wears a rather cultured air. The town's residen-
tial streets, lined with stately old homes and large shade trees, add yet another
layer to Walla Walla's character. A stroll or drive through the town's old neigh-
borhoods conjures up times past when the pace of life was slower.
Walla Walla is also one of the oldest communities in the Northwest and was
the site of both an early mission and one of the region's first forts. Before white
settlers arrived, the area was home to several Indian tribes, and it is from these
tribes that the town's name, which means “many waters” or “small, rapid streams”
has come.
ESSENTIALS
GETTING THERE
Walla Walla is on U.S. 12, 45 miles east of I-82/I-182 in
the Tri-Cities area. From I-82 west of Richland, take I-182 to Pasco and con-
tinue south and then west on U.S. 12. From Pendleton, Oregon, and I-84, take
Ore. 11 north. From Spokane, take U.S. 195 south to Colfax, continuing south
on Wash. 26 and then Wash. 127. In Dodge, you pick up U.S. 12 and continue
south to Walla Walla.
Walla Walla Regional Airport
(
&
509/525-3100
) is served by Horizon
Airlines.
VISITOR INFORMATION
Contact the
Walla Walla Area Chamber of
Commerce,
29 E. Sumach St. (P.O. Box 644), Walla Walla, WA 99362 (
&
877/
WWVISIT;
www.wallawalla.org).
GETTING AROUND
Rental cars are available in Walla Walla through Hertz
and Budget.
FESTIVALS
In early May there's the
Walla Walla Balloon Stampede,
and in
mid-July there's the
Walla Walla Sweet Onion Festival.
Area wine festivals
include the
Spring Barrel Tasting
over the first two weekends in May and the
Holiday Barrel Tasting
on the first weekend in December.
EXPLORING THE TOWN
The
Whitman Mission National Historic Site
(
&
509/522-6360;
www.
nps.gov/whmi), 7 miles west of Walla Walla just off U.S. 12, is dedicated to a
tragic page in Northwest history. Missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman
were some of the very first settlers to travel overland to the Northwest and
arrived in this area in 1836. Although the Whitmans had come here to convert
