Meandering road trips are good for the soul. You might learn something, too.

Editor’s note: Pacific NW magazine’s weekly Backstory provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the writer’s process or an extra tidbit that accompanies our cover story. This week’s cover story explores 10 Washington road-trip spots recommended by the people who know them best.

IN THE STORY I wrote for this issue, there are 10 specific suggestions for special places to visit.

I hope that if you decide on a drive to the farmers market in Twisp, or to catch the wondrous hills in the Palouse, you’ll also take time to simply … meander.

Some of the best road trips that my family has taken were ones with no specific timetable.

This quote is attributed to Henry David Thoreau, American naturalist and philosopher: “The only people who ever get anyplace interesting are the people who get lost.”

A few years ago, my wife and I were on a West Coast drive. We were on Interstate 84 in Oregon heading back to Washington when we decided to turn west to the town of John Day. We stayed in a motel there, and the next morning, driving out of town, we saw a sign for the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Why not?

Some 80 miles later, I was taking images of the wondrous Painted Hills. We had never seen anything like it. Explains the National Park Service website, “Distinguished by varied stripes of red, tan, orange and black, this area preserves a sequence of past climate change.”

Millions of years ago, when it was a warm, wet environment, fish and amphibians lived there. That’s the red color. Then grassland and light forests when the climate turned moderately warm. That’s the yellow color. The blacks are manganese from manganese-fixing plants.

On TripAdvisor, Daina from Portland wrote about living 200 miles from the monument for 30 years, “and can’t believe that we have not visited the Painted Hills before … We were stunned by the absolutely beautiful natural colorings on the hills that would change colors in front of our eyes, with the passing clouds and sun.”

I hope the 10 suggestions in my story pique your interest.

But make sure to leave plenty of time to meander. Get lost. You’ll do just fine.