Chico → Spokane. One Move Plan.

Chico to Spokane is Murdock’s longest regular Pacific Northwest lane at around 675 miles, and it's built from two very different halves. The first half is familiar — I-5 North through Redding, over Siskiyou Summit, and down into Portland, the same corridor our Seattle and Eugene crews run every week. From Portland, though, the route turns east onto I-84 and follows the Columbia River Gorge, a dramatic stretch of highway squeezed between basalt cliffs and the river itself, past Hood River, The Dalles, and Pendleton.

East of Pendleton the landscape opens into rolling wheat country, and the route picks up US-395 North through the Tri-Cities area and into the Palouse — the rolling hill farmland that carries the highway the rest of the way into Spokane. Given the distance, Murdock’s typically runs this as a two-day move with a planned overnight, usually somewhere around the Tri-Cities or Pendleton, so the crew arrives in Spokane rested and your delivery window stays accurate.

This route crosses more open, exposed terrain than our other Pacific Northwest lanes — the Gorge is known for strong crosswinds that our drivers watch closely, and the Palouse gets real winter weather that the milder I-5 corridor doesn't see as often. Murdock’s builds those specifics into scheduling rather than quoting a flat number regardless of season.

As with every long-distance move we run, this one moves under our own USDOT and MC authority — one Murdock’s crew, one truck, loaded in Chico and delivered to your new address in the Spokane metro without a warehouse transfer in between.

Spokane anchors the Inland Northwest with a cost of living well below Seattle or Portland and a genuine four-season climate that a lot of Northern California transplants specifically seek out. The South Hill neighborhood is Spokane's historic core — tree-lined streets, early-1900s homes, and views down toward the Spokane River — while Kendall Yards has turned a former rail yard along the river into one of the city's most walkable new districts, with restaurants and a Saturday market drawing people out of the car.

Just east of the city, Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake have become the metro's fastest-growing corridor, with newer construction and a business park drawing logistics and tech employers, including a large Amazon fulfillment presence. Cheney, home to Eastern Washington University, offers small-town, budget-friendly living a short commute from downtown, and Mead and North Spokane give families larger lots and easy highway access. Many transplants also weigh nearby Coeur d'Alene, Idaho — about a 30-minute drive east — as part of the same relocation decision, even though it's a separate city and state.

Spokane's economy leans on healthcare, education (Gonzaga University is a major local anchor), and a resurgent manufacturing and logistics sector. What movers should know: this is real winter country — measurable snow is common from November through March, and Spokane crews plan de-icing and driveway access into cold-weather deliveries as a matter of course, not an afterthought. Compared to the mild, wet Willamette Valley our other Pacific Northwest routes run through, Spokane's climate is a genuine adjustment worth planning for.