Quincy Valley Shuttle & Tours Aims to Connect Quincy to the Gorge—and Back Again
A new local business is working to create safer rides and new ways to experience Quincy. For years, people here have asked the same question: why don’t we have a shuttle to the Gorge?
There is a new business coming to Quincy, but it is not officially on the road just yet.
Quincy Valley Shuttle & Tours, founded by Sherriana Dole and Heather Hankins, is still working through the licensing, insurance, and permit process before launch. But if everything comes together the way they hope, the business could fill a gap a lot of people in Quincy have noticed for years.
For locals, it could mean finally having a safer, simpler way to get to and from concerts at the Gorge Amphitheatre without dealing with the usual traffic, parking headaches, or late-night drive home.
Picture walking to a pickup spot in town, hopping on, and not thinking about your car again until you’re home.
For visitors, it could mean something just as important: a reason to get off the campground, out of the hotel, and actually see what Quincy has to offer.
A business built around a need people already feel
The idea did not come out of nowhere.
Dole said she had heard for years from people in town asking the same basic question: why is there no shuttle from Quincy to the Gorge?
That question kept coming up in conversation, and it lined up with her own experience as well. Both Hankins and Dole are school bus drivers, and Dole has also seen firsthand how difficult concert traffic can be and how limited the options are for people trying to get to and from the venue safely.
Quincy is one of the closest communities to the Gorge, but for a long time that has not automatically translated into easier access for locals or into visitors actually coming back into town to eat, shop, explore, or spend time in the 98848. Hankins and Dole saw that as both a problem and an opportunity.
Their goal is simple: provide transportation that helps local people, supports safety, and gives visitors a reason to experience more of what Quincy and the surrounding area have to offer.
What Quincy Valley Shuttle & Tours plans to offer
Once they are approved to launch, Quincy Valley Shuttle & Tours plans to operate in a few different ways.
One of the main services will be concert shuttle runs between Quincy and the Gorge. Riders will be able to reserve seats in advance, choose a pickup location, and be dropped back off at the same place after the show. The model is designed to be clean and simple. Reserve your seat, know your pickup point, get to the show, enjoy the night, and come home without having to deal with the drive.
They are also planning excursion-style day trips, especially during Gorge festival weekends, when campers and out-of-town visitors may want something to do during the day before evening concerts begin.
Those tours could include stops at places like Beaumont Cellars, Jones of Washington, the Quincy Public Market, local shops, Woodinville Whiskey’s Quincy-area operations, Trinity Gardens Lavender Farm, and other area destinations depending on the package and the route.
The idea is not just transportation for the sake of transportation. It is transportation tied to experience, convenience, and giving people one less thing to worry about.
Instead of leaving people stuck in one place, Hankins and Dole want to create easy, planned outings where visitors can get on the bus, enjoy the day, discover a few local spots, and not have to figure out every detail themselves.
As Dole put it during our conversation, many people do not want to build an itinerary for a full group. They just want to know where to be, what time to show up, and that someone else has already worked out the details.
What this means (in plain English)
You don’t have to drive to the Gorge anymore
Visitors have a reason to come into Quincy
Local businesses get more foot traffic
Safer roads during concert weekends
Why this matters for Quincy
This is where the story gets bigger than one business.
Quincy has a major tourism engine sitting just outside town in the Gorge, but getting those visitors into Quincy has been an ongoing conversation in this area for a long time. Community leaders, business owners, and local groups have all talked in one way or another about the same challenge: how do we take one of the biggest venues in the region and turn some of that traffic into local economic activity here at home?
Quincy Valley Shuttle & Tours is not the full answer to that question, but it could become one practical piece of it.
If visitors can get into town easily, they are more likely to shop here, eat here, taste wine here, visit local attractions here, and leave with a very different impression of Quincy than if they only ever saw the campground and the highway.
That matters.
Hankins said part of their vision is helping people see that Quincy is more than just the place next to the Gorge. There are businesses here, local experiences here, and a community here that is worth more than a quick drive past on the way to a concert. For out-of-town guests, especially those coming from other states or even other countries, that may not be obvious unless someone intentionally creates a path for them to experience it.
That is part of what Quincy Valley Shuttle & Tours hopes to do.
Safety is one of the clearest benefits
There is another reason this idea has gotten such a positive response so far: safety.
Anybody who has spent much time around Gorge concert traffic knows the combination of congestion, long waits, tired drivers, and people who have been partying can create a rough mix on the road. Even when someone is being careful, they are still sharing the road with a lot of other people who may not be.
“We just want people to get on the bus and enjoy their day without having to plan everything.”
That was one of the biggest themes that came up in conversation with Hankins and Dole.
They are not pitching this as a party bus. They are pitching it as a safer, more convenient alternative for people in Quincy who would otherwise have to drive themselves out to the venue and back.
In plain English, it means fewer people white-knuckling their way through concert traffic at the end of the night.
That means fewer local drivers dealing with concert traffic, fewer people trying to figure out parking, and fewer people tempted to drive back after drinking. Their pickup model is intentionally designed around community stops and walkable destinations, not extra parking lots that encourage people to drive anyway.
Their message is clear: the point is to get people where they are going and get them home safely.
They are not launched yet, and they are being honest about that
One of the things I appreciated in the conversation was that they were straightforward about where things stand.
This is not a fully launched business yet.
Right now, Quincy Valley Shuttle & Tours is still in the process of getting final approvals in place. Insurance has been one of the biggest hurdles, and they are still working through the requirements that come with operating this kind of transportation service legally.
That matters to say plainly, because this is not one of those “open for business tomorrow” stories. It is a “coming soon, once the final pieces come together” story.
And honestly, that is part of what makes it worth paying attention to now. The groundwork is being laid before the wheels ever hit the road. The community response so far has been overwhelmingly positive. Local businesses, community contacts, and potential riders are already showing interest in partnering with them and using the service once it launches.
More than concert shuttles
Although the Gorge route is the easiest thing for most people to immediately understand, Hankins and Dole are thinking beyond concerts.
They talked about possible transportation for wedding groups, executive guests staying in the area, local tours on non-concert weekends, seasonal events, and even shuttle service tied to community activities like the City of George’s Fourth of July celebration.
They also mentioned interest in building packages around golf, wine tasting, whiskey tours, lavender farm visits, and other local experiences that give people a chance to spend a day doing something enjoyable without having to coordinate all the driving themselves.
In other words, the bigger idea is not just “how do we get people to the Gorge?”
It is also, “how do we help people move around this region in a way that makes it easier to actually enjoy what is already here?”
That is a different kind of opportunity, and one that could matter not only for visitors, but for local residents too. A concert night, a wine stop, a lavender farm visit, a group outing, a weekend ride somewhere different, those all start to feel a little more possible when someone else is handling the road.
A local business with local roots
There is something else worth noting here too.
This is not an outside company looking at Quincy as a market. These are local women building something from inside the community they already serve.
They already know the rhythms of this area. They already know the schools, the roads, the people, and the practical realities. And because they both already work as bus drivers, they are not coming at this from a purely theoretical angle.
They are looking at a problem they understand firsthand and trying to build something useful around it.
That local connection matters. It tends to show up in the details, in the way a business thinks about safety, in the way it thinks about customers, and in the way it thinks about the community it is trying to serve.
What to watch next
For now, Quincy Valley Shuttle & Tours remains a business to watch rather than one you can book today.
The next step is getting through the final licensing and insurance process so they can legally begin operating. When that happens, this could become one of the more interesting new businesses to emerge in Quincy this season, especially as concert traffic starts building again.
And when it is up and running, it will do more than move people from one place to another.
It could help close one of the gaps this community has been talking about for years: how to better connect Quincy to the opportunities already happening right next door. It could help locals get to events more safely, help visitors spend more time in town, and help more people see Quincy as a destination instead of just a nearby landmark on the way to the Gorge.
For a town that has spent a lot of time asking how to bring more of that energy back into the 98848, that makes this a story worth paying attention to.
If you want to follow their progress or be ready when bookings open, keep an eye on their Facebook page as they move closer to launch.
Click on their Logo to go to their FaceBook
