North Cascades National Park is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever experienced. A drive through the park along Highway 20 is a must, but camping for a few nights is necessary to really take it all in.
We camped near the western-themed town of Winthrop in the Methow Valley in May with some incredible early spring weather.
OK, to be really clear, it would take much more than a few nights of camping to truly take in all that the North Cascades and Methow Valley has to offer. There’s a myriad of outdoor activities, hiking trails, and things to see and experience. We were only there for three nights, but hope to return soon for more fun.
We stayed at Big Twin Lakes RV Park and the above pic was the view from our RV site. The RV Park is located just south of the town of Winthrop. Winthrop itself is a really cool little town set in a Western theme. It’s sort of like the Western version of Leavenworth, but a bit smaller.
Before we get too far into our actual time spent in the Methow Valley and around Winthrop, we must draw your attention to the drive along highway 20 to get there. We were coming from the South Sound, so with our trailer, the drive took about 5 hours. The drive is AMAZING. Not the drive up I5 though :).
Once you get off of I5 and start heading east through Arlington, Darrington, Rockport, Marblemount, and finally start your ascent into the Cascades, passing by Diablo Lake, Ross Lake, Rainy Pass, and finally Washington Pass at about 5400′, the scenery is nothing short of epic.
I was a bit jealous of my wife’s vantage point from the passenger seat as I could only do so much staring at the scenery while focusing on the road.
This is a 5-hour drive that does not feel like a 5-hour drive as you are thoroughly entertained and delighted by the visual display in the last 3.5 hours of the journey. Just wow.
My favorite part has to be the hairpin turn coming down from Washington Pass and going right past Early Winter Spire. Have I mentioned the epic scenery?
After all that mountain terrain, you emerge in the gorgeous Methow Valley. The Methow and Chewuch Rivers meet up around Winthrop and continue down through the drainage, eventually meeting the Columbia River at Pateros.
If you are looking for more of a small-town escape, Winthrop can meet that need. We had a sick member of our party that held us back from doing some of the hiking and adventuring we intended, so we kind of stuck close to town and wandered the streets, visited the tap house that specialized in ciders, outdoor shops, bookstore, and the awesome sweet shop.
In the town of Winthrop, there’s also the Shafer Museum which provides a window into the early 1900s in the west.
Just outside of Winthrop is the Winthrop National Fish Hatchery. We got to see the mobile automating fish tagging machine in action, marking spring chinook smolts as hatchery and harvestable fish by removing their adipose fin and also implanting a Coded Wire Tag in their snout that allows the hatchery they originated from to be identified after harvest.
One of our spring chinook from the Columbia this year had a tag removed from it. Was it a Methow fish? The fish checker didn’t say, but how cool would that have been?!
Unfortunately, the health of the steelhead run hasn’t been good, or they would be able to open a season on the Methow River itself. I’ve fished it once and even hooked and lost a steelhead on that trip.
It’s the coolest thing to fish for Salmon and Steelhead on a river that looks like it might belong in northern Arizona with all the desert landscape, pin,e and sage filling the scenery.
Also, just a few minutes outside of Winthrop is the birthplace of the Smoke Jumpers. We were provided a free tour from one of the only 500 firefighters employed in this manner in the US.
It’s easy to forget about or take for granted folks like that until you need them to save your town or your house/property from a threatening forest fire. The work they do, how they do it, is truly impressive and amazing.
They were just kind of arriving and ramping up preparations for the fire season when we showed up for the tour. Their plane hadn’t even arrived yet.
We did take one hike in the area near Mazama which is about 20 minutes north on Highway 20 from Winthrop. The hike was a nice gentle stroll along the banks of the Methow and over it at one point on the Tawlks Foster Suspension Bridge.
One thing to note, that we were kind of surprised by, is that many of the trails do not allow your furry four-legged friends (dogs) to accompany you. This hike did allow it, but it was the only one of the bunch in the Mazama area.
There are an incredible number of trails to choose from with varying degrees of difficulty. As always do lots of research and gear up properly for these hikes. You can also check out our Best Hikes near Seattle page for information on hiking gear and other hiking ideas.
As we drove back up the mountain on our return trip, the scenery once again did not disappoint, and while I may not be back in this area this season, this feels like just the beginning much more than the end of my time in this amazing part of the Pacific Northwest.
