The North Cascades Highway: Burlington to Twisp

The Route at a Glance

SR-20 leaves Burlington east up the Skagit valley through Sedro-Woolley and Concrete, where the silos of the old cement plant still stand beside the highway. This is Upper Skagit and Sauk-Suiattle country, and in winter bald eagles gather along the river between Rockport and Marblemount to feed on salmon that have spawned and died. Marblemount is the last real town for a long way; fill the tank there.

Newhalem is Seattle City Light's company town, built for the crews of the three dams the city put across the upper Skagit, and the national park's visitor center stands just beyond it. The road climbs past the dams, and from the overlook above Diablo Lake the water shows the milky green of glacial flour, rock ground to powder by the ice and held in suspension. Past Ross Lake the highway climbs to Rainy Pass, where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses it, and on to Washington Pass, where a short walk from the overlook looks straight up at the granite of Liberty Bell and the Early Winters Spires. The gates close between mileposts 134 and 171 when the snow comes, usually in November, and crews spend weeks each spring digging the road out.

Down the east side the forest thins to pine and the Methow opens below Mazama. Winthrop rebuilt its main street with false fronts and boardwalks for the highway's opening in 1972, largely on the money of Kathryn Wagner, a sawmill owner's widow. The town had frontier credentials of its own: Owen Wister stayed there in the 1890s, his honeymoon included, before he wrote The Virginian. The route ends nine miles south at Twisp.

The Drive, Stop by Stop

1 stops along the route, in driving order from Burlington, Washington to Twisp, Washington.

1. 1

   Ladder Creek Falls and Gardens

   Newhalem

   In Newhalem, across the suspension bridge behind the Gorge Powerhouse.

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That's the drive. Take your time, pull over often, and let The North Cascades Highway: Burlington to Twisp do what it does best.