Washington State parks over crowding

SH wrote:
We have definitely noticed a huge increase in traffic on I5 even in our local Bellingham area. Took the wife to SCCA last Wednesday and took 3 hours to do the 90 miles. Stop and go from Smokey Point until Mercer Street. Coming home was not much better.

For the first summer ever, our local Private Parks are booked up and reservations difficult to get. We quit looking at State Parks years ago as our current working lifestyle doesn't allow us to book a year in advance.

Camping is much more challenging now but we still manage a few weekends each year! Wonder what it will be like when we finally do retire?

I can give you a heads up. go south for 6 months and after a few years of doing this ya might want to stay home and get ready for the next 6 months. it is called old age.

chevman

larry barnhart wrote:

SH wrote:
We have definitely noticed a huge increase in traffic on I5 even in our local Bellingham area. Took the wife to SCCA last Wednesday and took 3 hours to do the 90 miles. Stop and go from Smokey Point until Mercer Street. Coming home was not much better.

For the first summer ever, our local Private Parks are booked up and reservations difficult to get. We quit looking at State Parks years ago as our current working lifestyle doesn't allow us to book a year in advance.

Camping is much more challenging now but we still manage a few weekends each year! Wonder what it will be like when we finally do retire?

I can give you a heads up. go south for 6 months and after a few years of doing this ya might want to stay home and get ready for the next 6 months. it is called old age.

chevman

Won't be long!

For the past 5+ years we've been taking the ferry over to Port Townsend when heading south from BC to avoid the Seattle traffic. The Deception Pass bridge has never bothered me (with the TT in tow).

Couple of weeks ago we needed to stop in Woodland (near the WA/OR border) before heading out to the WA coast and decided to take the 405 "detour" around the east side of Seattle instead. Big mistake. Used to be much faster and easier than driving through Seattle but it was a total nightmare drive despite being a Thursday, esp. with the TT. Towing around San Francisco is much easier in comparison IMO...

I'd rather drive back and forth through Deception Pass all day long than around Seattle on 405 just once.

Maybe more folks have also been going to/from Port Townsend to avoid Seattle?

Yes, the traffic through Bellingham has been getting bad and it's not a very big city.

myredracer wrote:
...
I'd rather drive back and forth through Deception Pass all day long than around Seattle on 405 just once.

Maybe more folks have also been going to/from Port Townsend to avoid Seattle?
...

I dono about Seattle, we live on the west side of the sound and take that ferry any time we are north bound. Avoids the entire Edmonds/Everett/SmokeyPoint mess

Like we will heading for Langley over the long weekend in Sept

myredracer wrote:


I'd rather drive back and forth through Deception Pass all day long than around Seattle on 405 just once..

Just don't do it on a sunny summer Sunday afternoon.

Tin-bender wrote:

bikendan wrote:
One of the reasons we chose Camano Island, to live, over Anacortes and Whidbey.
The traffic both ways is just terrible.

You chose to live where the traffic is just terrible bothways:?:E

Tinbender

I was referring to Anacortes and Whidbey traffic.

You will get people like that clogging up traffic. There's a car wash near me that used to always have traffic lined up in travel lanes to get in. The city put up a sign and started issuing tickets. I don't understand why you can't get some enforcement there. It sounds like a serious problem and possibly a hazard as cars come up to the tail end of the backup at highway speed.

The dumb thing with Deception Pass SP is that there's plenty of parking inside the park, but many people just want to walk across the bridge and back and take photos and can't be bothered to walk up from the park.

Getting to/from Anacortes to I-5 isn't a big deal, even in the height of summer traffic. Most of the congestion is in the far left lane as you approach the Sharp's Corner lights - people going towards Whidbey Island. We still think it's the best place we've ever lived, now approaching 17 years here.

We would take the road into Anacortes, turn around at the traffic circle and back out to Sharp's Corner in June while we were staying in La Conner. 4 extra miles driving and always beating vehicles sitting waiting on the left turn light.

Deception Pass would be a lot better if there was some signage about where to park. I didn't know there was a parking area inside the state park. I assume it is a pay to park area similar to the south side of the bridge. Even that is difficult to learn about when approaching for the first time.

We probably went across the bridge a dozen times during our three weeks in La Conner (had some things to get done at the base) and it was always crowded.

n7bsn wrote:

myredracer wrote:
...
I'd rather drive back and forth through Deception Pass all day long than around Seattle on 405 just once.

Maybe more folks have also been going to/from Port Townsend to avoid Seattle?
...

I dono about Seattle, we live on the west side of the sound and take that ferry any time we are north bound. Avoids the entire Edmonds/Everett/SmokeyPoint mess

Like we will heading for Langley over the long weekend in Sept

405 is a gong show too now. as bad as I5 a lot of the time.
Semi good news, the other half of the 167/405 direct connector project should go right after this phase is finished (current job started about 6mo ago, where they're cutting out the hillside on the SE corner of 167/405).
As well the Renton to Bellevue 405 upgrade is slated to go out for bid in about 18 mo last I heard. WSDOT is trying to decide if 1 package for about $1bil or split it into 2 $500 mil projects. Kicker is, currently only will add 1 more lane each way!
I-90 Bellevue to Issaquah will get addl lane widneing for peak use shoulder driving, start mid next year. Similar to what I just finished up on 405 NB from 527 to I5.
520 eastbound West approach will go next year about the time the current Westbound approach is done.
I don't see this alleviating a lot even with the couple billion going into the freeways in King county in the next 5 years unfortunately.