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Methow Valley Summer 2010
By Paul Butler
W
ithout a doubt, there are only a few stretches of pavement in North America as spectacular as the North Cascades Highway. And few roadways have such an interesting history as well as present-day dramatics.
Crossing the spectacular
The NCH is a short span of asphalt (although Highway 20 is the state’s longest road, traversing 436 miles), snaking a rugged 65 miles from Mazama to Newhalem. While it is arguable that this scenic travel corridor extends beyond these two towns, the real heart of this road is the section that bisects what is commonly referred to as the “Alps of America.” The country surrounding the highway is as remote and mountainous as anywhere else in the lower 48 states.
Cross-state route born
It is a young road. The North Cascades Highway officially opened for the short duration of a Cascades autumn in 1972. The big day was a festive and sunny September 2nd, with multiple dedications, caravans traveling from east and west and great political fanfare. They whooped it up that day, a day that ushered in an era of change for the previously isolated Methow Valley. And who could blame them? As much as the mountains themselves, it was a wonder the highway was ever completed. Adding much to its history and notoriety, Washington State Highway 20 – the North Cross-State Highway as it was first called – took a long time to be built. In 1814, explorer Alexander Ross, the first white person known to cross the North Cascades in the proximity of today’s highway, thrashed his way west from the Twisp River over Cascade Pass toward, but falling short of, the Marblemount area. His team’s epic journey undoubtedly set the tone for the Herculean effort eventually required to create the modern-day thoroughfare that allows travelers to pleasantly zip across such a daunting mountain range. The notion of putting a travel route through that section received its first funding in 1895. By 1905, floods had washed away much of the work and the money was gone. Throughout the rest of the 20th century, the quest to finish the North Cascades Highway was as tumultuous an ordeal as the creeks running down the precipitous mountainsides.
Photo by John Hanron
The Washington Pass overlook is a worthwhile stop on your journey through the North Cascades.