The James Longmire wagon train arrived at Fort Walla Walla in early September 1853, with plans to continue to Puget Sound. Persuaded to take the new People's Road over Naches Pass, they followed a route up the Naches and Little Naches Rivers to the mountains, leaving the prairies of eastern Washington behind and encountering northwest forests for the first time in mid-September. Here they followed Kirtley's blazes marking a trail, but no road. The wagon train cut a road as they went. Within five miles of the pass (east side) they picked up Allen's more substantial road and reached Naches Pass in early October.