I've done Ione, WA, to Sandpoint, ID, twice--1999 and 2000--while touring. Stopped in Newport, WA for my first ever chicken fried steak with biscuits and sausage gravy.
Saw this fellow last month while touring in NW Montana. Wish my camera had a greater zoom. Also saw a herd of doe elk with calves, a lone young bull elk, a couple of bald eagles, lots of ospreys, including one with a fish in its talons, and countless deer, some of which wandered through my campsites.