North Cascades Hwy.

The North Cascades are fun to look at, but for camping and hanging around I would head for the Methow Valley. It dries out a lot by Early Winters. You can make some day trips to Rainy Pass, Slate Peak and Hart Pass and come back to a warm and dry camp site.

Pine Near RV park looks good. Think we will spend a couple of nights there for sure. Now to find a some other places to stay for a few nights maybe on a lake or river.

I stayed at a GREAT family owned campground in Winthrop, called Pine Near RV Park right next door to Shafer Museum (which is pretty cool). You need to make Winthrop a stop - it's an old west town motif.

ppine wrote:
check the opening date.
I used to drive over it all the time. Great place to view NW forests and the effects of glaciation. We had a reallly dry winter back in around 1974. I drove over the North Cascades Highway at night in Feb in a 2wd VW bug. We passed 2 other cars in several hours.

The Highway opened 2 weeks ago. But many of the pull outs may not be cleared. Camping between Mazama and Newhalem is non existent except for 1 camp ground at Lake Diablo. (colonial Creek)
There are trail head parking at several places that you can dry camp over night, and there is a dry camp above Mazama called Early winters, but no services. After Newhalem there are several.

check the opening date.
I used to drive over it all the time. Great place to view NW forests and the effects of glaciation. We had a reallly dry winter back in around 1974. I drove over the North Cascades Highway at night in Feb in a 2wd VW bug. We passed 2 other cars in several hours.