Site Logo

Here’s when you can drive across the North Cascades again

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, April 16, 2019

By Robert Mittendorf The Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, Wash.)

Here’s when you can drive across the North Cascades again
1/2
Here’s when you can drive across the North Cascades again
Jim Johnson, the man behind the machine, has SR 20 cleared on the west side to mile post 150 (Easy Pass trailhead vicinity). The east side WSDOT team has made it to mile post 163 in the Liberty Bell area. (Washington State Department of Transportation)

By Robert Mittendorf / The Bellingham Herald

It’ll be easier to get to Central Washington — especially to some hiking trails and the Methow Valley cities of Winthrop and Twisp — after the scenic North Cascades Highway opens Thursday.

“Crews still have a bit of work to do, but this is the earliest opening since 2015 and will have the road connecting the Skagit and Methow valleys open in time for lowland fishing season and Winthrop’s “49er Days,” the state Department of Transportation said Monday on its Facebook page.

A 37-mile section of state Highway 20 closes to cars every fall between Diablo and Mazama because of heavy snow that creates avalanche conditions, WSDOT said at its website.

Two state Department of Transportation crews — one from the east side and another from the west — clear the road of snow and dangerous trees using plows, blowers, graders, excavators and chain saws.

The earliest opening was March 10, 2005, and the latest was Sept. 2, 1972, according to WSDOT records.

Records show that the road usually opens sometime from early April to early May.

It didn’t close for the winter of 1976-77.

You Might Like