mile23

Be sure and gas up in Marblemount or Twisp.

Also make sure it’s open over the passes. :-)

Even just driving the North Cascades Highway without stopping is worth doing, but you’ll want to stop in Newhalem and learn about the region. Have a little adventure at the dams, and be sure to hike up Thunder Creek a ways (trailhead in Colonial Creek campground).

The spectacular scenery starts outside the east end of the official recreation area, culminating at Rainy and Washington passes.

Ab-so-lutely.

What. Ever.

It’s like going to the first McDonalds, or the first Kentucky Fried Chicken, or the first Coca-Cola bottling plant.

Don’t go here. Go find an honest-to-goodness mom-and-pop espresso stand.

Picnic, skateboard, kites, wandering, bicycle. It’s pretty much the perfect city park.

Go during a festival. Go on a sunny day. Take a date in the evening, find the ‘secret’ benches that face the city across the water, and make out. Or just write poetry. Or something.

Easy access by bike via Burke-Gillman Trail.

You’re a ‘Twin Peaks’ fan, so you know.

Don’t take I-90 to get there. Align your trip so you pass through Fall City, on the backroads. If you can help it, take the Snoqualmie Trail, which is a wide, paved, rail-to-trail path from near Fall City.

Overpriced, crowded, claustrophobic, and the view isn’t really all that good. Go up the Smith Tower instead, or go over to that park on the side of Queen Anne.

Lolo Trail is an ancient trade route, eventually ‘discovered’ by Lewis and Clark, through north-central Idaho. It parallels the Lochsha River along the ridge to the north.

Big Spring is part of the geothermal system of Yellowstone. It joins the runoff from Henry’s Lake in the northeast tip of Idaho, to form the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River watershed.

Clearwater National Forest