In 1937 State Road No. 8 was designated Primary State Highway 8 Evergreen Highway. Despite its renaming in 1968 to State Route 14, the “Evergreen Highway” moniker has hung around here and there. In Vancouver the original alignment is known alternately as Evergreen Blvd. and SE Evergreen Highway. In Camas and Washougal it is Evergreen Highway, Evergreen Way, and Evergreen Blvd. If you are a railfan you may have driven parts of the original Evergreen Highway as it closely parallels the BNSF from McGloughlin to to Washougal. East of Washougal the name seems to not be as popular with people just referring to the road as SR 14. Most maps still show SR 14 to be Evergreen Highway though.
Prior to 1937 State Road No. 8 was known officially as the “North Bank Road”. That seems very fitting considering that was the nickname of the SP&S which the road closely followed.
Sunday morning I headed into the west end of the gorge to take advantage of the traffic running heaving after Saturday’s slide. In addition to seeing three trains, I was treated to a nice Sunday drive. At West Skamania I pulled off at the Franz Lake Wildlife Refuge overlook to photograph this westbound Rivergate grain train. Just another day along the Evergreen Highway.
