old cascade highway

[rwx]

snowroad
Originally uploaded by Corprew / Zeitgeist.

This is the old cascade highway, shortly before it started getting seriously narrow -- after this, there were stretches where i couldn't open my car doors. That's a one lane road, and you can see the GPS propped against my window in the bottom right of the frame. At this point, the road is roughly the width of my truck.

The OCH runs parallel to or is replaced by route 2 for a lot of it's route. This is a stretch just past Skykomish that was plowed for no reason I could tell, and went several miles back into the hill getting progressively narrower/higher with no place to turn around.

I saw lots of beautiful waterfalls and snow formations. I can't figure out why the road was plowed, though, eventually it just dead-ended in a circle with 10' high walls. It was relatively near a geocache that was up in a tree that I couldn't get to because of lack of snowshoes (in the areas I could traverse without snowshoes, there were several feed of snow, more than the surrounding/lower areas.) I got out and walked around a bit up at the top to listen to the water pouring off the mountains into the valleys.

Comments

[agentsteel53.livejournal.com]

that's awesome - where is that specifically? can you link me to a google map please?

I've driven old Blewitt Pass (US-97) in Washington, which was a similar experience of being a one-lane road. I've never actually done US-2; neither old nor new. Definitely on my list of things to do, to drive that across the Cascades.

[rwx.livejournal.com]

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[rwx.livejournal.com]

that (dammit lj stop sucking) has a way point at where i would have come out back onto the road. it's near the entrance to the old cascade tunnel. if you check out the satellite map there, you can see a couple of older highways made at various points.

US-2 is pretty mellow as passes go, it can get nutty in the winter because I-90 is the 'default pass' and the avalanche control crews seem to be more active on 90.

[agentsteel53.livejournal.com]

thanks for the map! lots of old alignments there to be poked through. I will have to drive them all sometime.

Snoqualmie (US-10) is the easiest pass over the Cascades so that's where they built I-90, and that's the one they want everyone to use.

Wasn't I-90 closed a few months ago due to flooding? And also US-12, leaving only Stevens open?

[goredtorso.livejournal.com]

This is up higher than Oontz-ville - is there snow still on the ground there?

[rwx.livejournal.com]

never having been invited to an event at oontzville, i really couldn't tell you, but the snow on the ground starts at around skykomish.

[goredtorso.livejournal.com]

That would be snow-covered then.

Events? I dunno if anyone has events anymore. We just yell at kids on our lawns.