North Cascades Hwy. worth the extra time

By CARY ORDWAY

First-time visitors to Washington state often are amazed at the state's beauty and variety of terrain. A typical visitor might enjoy a few days in Puget Sound where saltwater parks and island vistas abound, and then drive east on Interstate 90 only to encounter even more spectacular natural beauty with the jagged mountains, pristine lakes and dense forests.

If they keep driving, they eventually get to the Columbia River and the complete change of scenery from Colorado-style mountains to Iowa wheat fields all in the space of a few miles. Folks from flatter, more vanilla topography go home raving to their friends about the natural beauty that is the Pacific Northwest.

Vistors traveling from late spring through early fall have a special advantage if they don't mind driving a few extra miles. Normally impassable in winter, the North Cascades Highway is cleared for travel once the winter snowstorms have subsided, and visitors wanting to drive deep into some of the more untouched parts of Washington state would do well to consider the six-hour drive from the Seattle area over to Wenatchee, an excellent place to spend the night and a popular destination in its own right.

The North Cascades Highway will take you through North Cascades National Park – a land of towering peaks and wonderful scenic vistas combining the mountains, forests, lakes and streams pictured on popular postcards of the region. It's not a route that you want to hurry through; the best thing to do is to just make the day of it, stopping at places along the way at your own pace. Yes, it will double the normal travel time between Seattle and Wenatchee, but it will be worth it.

The western terminus of the North Cascades Highway is in Sedro Woolley, in Northwest Washington. So the first couple of hours from Seattle will be spent just getting to the highway – Highway 20 – and you'll find it an easy drive by freeway offering plenty to see along the way as you head north to Everett and through Snohomish and Skagit counties. To the west is Puget Sound – to the east is the range of mountains that you will be crossing later in the day.

For the most part, Highway 20 is a two-lane road, although there are plenty of passing lanes that appear from time to time. But remember – this is a day in which you are going to savor the journey, not watch the clock. Getting there is not just half the fun – it's almost all of it.

The Highway 20 drive at first meanders through lowlands and then foothills, roughly following the winding path of the Skagit River, taking you through the small towns of Concrete, Rockport and Marblemount, where you can find food and supplies. Just up the road a ways is Newhalem, where you'll be entering the North Cascades National Park and will find a visitor center with exhibits, maps and backcountry permits should you want to stop and do some hiking along the way.

Just past Newhalem, you start to get a preview of the dramatic scenery ahead. You see the river valley give way to the spectacular 540-foot-high Ross Dam which, along with two other dams in the area, create power for the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area. First you drive along Ross Lake, and then the larger Diablo Lake comes into full view with plenty of stopping points along the way to take photos.