North Cascades Highway — Sedro-Woolley to Winthrop over Washington Pass

From Sedro-Woolley the highway follows the Skagit River past concreteCompany towns — Newhalem and Diablo were built for the dam workers — to the turquoise water of Diablo Lake, best seen from the overlook a mile off the highway. Beyond Gorge Lake the valley narrows and the climbing starts in earnest: switchbacks through old burn scar to Rainy Pass, a short plateau through the rainforest of the Maple Loop, then the real top at Washington Pass (5,477 ft). The overlook spur, a quarter-mile walk, faces the Liberty Bell group head-on. The east side falls away in wide, banked sweepers through Early Winters Creek canyon to Mazama and Winthrop, where the speed limit literally changes to horse-and-buggy rules on the wooden boardwalk. Fuel exists only in Sedro-Woolley, Marblemount (summer) and Winthrop — plan accordingly.