North Cascades Scenic Highway (Route 20)

paulj

The rock garden walk beside and above the power station at Nehalem is magnificent. A landscape architect friend designed the path and lighting. I have yet to do it at night.

Another friend does the tree maintenance at Deception Pass SP.and he says that the budget is so limited, that they are unable to keep up with the aging old growth trees in the park, and may need to close some areas. I had him drop a 42" diameter x 120 foot high Douglas Fir tree that was 3 feet from my house. He missed his mark on the beach by 18". Close enough.

That last few times I've visited Rockport I parked at the dayuse area, and walked the trails. My impression is that the old campground loops are baracaded off, but that my memory may be faulty. I've looked at the other campgrounds in the area (the county and the state one further west), but haven't used them. There's another county campground on the other side of the river.

I found out this past summer that South Whidbey Island State Park has the same problem - falling old growth.

My first experience in the area was in the 1980s, and living in Chicago. After a week camping in BC, we drove south on WA9 to 20, and spent the night at a camp ground on Baker Lake. All I had go one were the little tent symbols on the AAA state atlas.

The next day we crossed the Cascades (with a stop at rock garden behind the power house as Nehalem), and made it Sherman Pass for the next night. Then another day to Glacier NP.

paulj

We've camped many times at Rockport State Park in the past. We drove through last month, and the forest is overtaking the former camping loops. I'm not sure if it would be passable for the MH.

enblethen

We love Howard Miller Steelhead County Park in Rockport, and camp there all year long. It's fun during the eagle festival with interpretive programs. We camped there after major flooding in winter, and I called Rusty to inquire about a spot, and he asked if I lived in Skagit County, I said yes, and he said to move the barricades, find a spot near the river, and pull the barricades back. He came by to talk, and I asked him if that was driftwood about 5 feet higher than our spot, he said: it should be OK, thats where the water level was a couple of days ago, but it's not going to rain hard tonight. It did rain, and my wife had me check the river level throughout the night.

Pangaea Ron wrote:
Tom/Barb are correct, watch your speed going through the company "town" of Nehalem. I've seen 4 police motorcycles and a cruiser monitoring that short stretch of highway. There is also a Visitor Center in Town that describes the Seattle City Light operations with information about tours to their facilities.

There is a great place to pull out and rest at Newhalem, you can always tell who is going west and who is going east, by the smell of their brakes.

As has been posted, use the gears to stay slow coming off the mountain, it's a 5-6 % grade in most places. the worst is marked so watch the signs.

Most every pull out on the highway is a trail head parking lot. you can stay overnight. The State patrol checks about every 2 hours. but most are small and not very level.

Lone Fir is a nice little campground - but as rustic as any Forest Service ground. My impression is that a large RV could have problems negotiating the full loop, but would be ok in one of the sites closest to the highway.

We first stayed there one October at the start of deer hunting season. We were initially thinking of staying in a motel in the Twisp area, but everything was full. Even the campgrounds were full. Lone Fir is the last, highest one before the pass. I think that was the stay we have frozen water in the morning. On another fall trip I was doing day hikes around Rainy Pass, and this was the closest campground. I woke to find a deer strung up on tree nearby - a party of hunters was using the adjacent site.

Heading west the next campground is Colonial Creek - lot bigger, and pretty nice. With water access and several good day hikes.

My favorite campground along 20 is Rockport SP. Unfortunately that is now day-use only. The old growth forest was considered unsafe - don't want big rotten branch falling on some tent or RV. It's still great for a lunch break.

Forest service campground just west of Newhalem.
Steelheader park at Rockport has hook ups, water and electric.

Tom/Barb are correct, watch your speed going through the company "town" of Nehalem. I've seen 4 police motorcycles and a cruiser monitoring that short stretch of highway. There is also a Visitor Center in Town that describes the Seattle City Light operations with information about tours to their facilities.

You'll enjoy the trip. Just take it slow and use your transmission going down. We usually avoid the Loup Loup and drive through Pateros and Carlton to get to Twisp and Winthrop from Brewster..

We also like Pine Near RV Park in Winthrop. It's close to town, and across the street from the Schaffer Mining Museum which is great.

There is also River Bend RV Park a few miles East of Winthrop which looks nice, and we will try next season.

We recently stayed at Lone Fir FS CG a few miles West of Winthrop and Mazama. Sunset Magazine rated it as one of the best 50 CG's in the West. We were the only campers there, and it is very nice with interpretive trails, although it did unexpectedly freeze that night at 3,800 ft.

Early Winters FS CG near Mazama is also nice, and you can walk to the Freestone Inn for a great meal.

Stop at Washington Pass for a short walk out to the viewpoint. We were recently there and talked with a "hotshot" firefighting team from TX/OK that were relieved to have just put out a remote fire started by a plane crash the killed the grandparents of a girl that walked for several days to get help. The opening scene for "Ice Road Truckers" was filmed just below there.

Stop at Rainy Pass for a nice walk to Rainy Lake where you can often find icebergs throughout the summer.

Visit the North Cascades NP Visitor Center in Nehalem for a good description of the NP

As you drive West on WA 20 after you cross the Columbia River, you will start to see fire damage form the last 2 years of catastrophic fires.

A few thoughts on getting Winthrop.

Probably the flattest is I90 to Gorge, then north to Winnatchee (I forget the state highway number), and US97 to Patros, and then another state hwy to Twisp.

US to Wilbur, and then NW past Grand Coulee Dam is a scenic route. You have to take WA20 over Louploup pass to get to Twisp, but that's no big deal.

W20 from Newport/ID is another option, or US395 from Spokane to Kettle Valley to cut off a corner. WA20 west of the Columbia crosses Sherman Pass. It's the highest paved pass in the state, but I haven't read of anyone complaining about it.

All these will pass through wild fire burns from the past 2 years.

Mt Baker Hwy is probably RV friendly up to the 2nd Forest Service campground. After that it climbs with grades and curves up to the ski area and hiking. That's snowiest highway in the state, and plowing all the way to Artist Point maybe delayed till July. WSDOT has Flickr pictures of all of their spring plowing.

Travel glampers wrote:
Is the North Cascades Scenic Highway (Route 20) a suitable road for towing a 34-ft fifth wheel? We want to travel it next July going from east to west. We are planning to camp in Winthrop first, then travel west, then north to camp within reach of Mt. Baker Highway. We welcome any suggestions or recommendations. Thanks.

We've done this trip a few times. In Winthrop you'll want Peregrin State Park, absolutely gorgeous. It has two sections, the second driveway is the nice one. Look it up on their website, it'll make sense. We have also stayed at Silver Lake very near Mt Baker, I've never seen so much rain in my life! It was a very steep driveway but a nice campsite, only stayed two nights and it was a torrential downpour the entire time!
Have fun, it's a beautiful drive
(Both of the times we did this trip was the week after the Canadian Victoria Day, the road was just open and still lots of snow on the sides, some of the lookouts weren't open due to the snow)