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The North Cascades Highway is a very popular route for motorcyclists seeking curves, scenery and small towns to eat in. Relatively few riders from the west side of the mountains venture off the Cascade Loop route. That, my fellow riders is a shame.

This article is part of the BestScenicRoutes.com effort to get people to explore the great areas near and along SR 20. The series is called North Cascades Connections.

Sign says "leaving" however, I was just entering the Okanogan National Forest for moments of motorcycle zen

The ride starts in the town of Winthrop. This is a motorcycle destination for most riders. The North Cascades Highway terminates here, but SR 20 continues on for many miles. We follow it south through Twisp, WA passing many food, lodging and fuel options. In Twisp, the road turns east and meanders through the Okanogan National Forest. As soon as it turns east, it begins climbing to 4,020 feet in elevation at Loup Loup Pass.

On most days this would be superb riding. I was not that lucky. Rain that started back on Rainy and Washington Passes had gotten heavier and turned to marble-sized hail. The every frozen marble that hit me at 60 miles per hour felt as I would imagine being hit by machine guns wearing some sort of bullet-proof vest. The Aerostich Roadcrafter performed well, and allowed me to duck in behind the windshield to keep moving. From time to time the hail would let up. My spirits would rise and I found joy riding through the moderate condition of the paved roads through the Okanogan National Forest.

A soaked leather riding glove with melting hail. Not perfect riding conditions.

There are a few places where the road winds near Loup Loup Pass inviting Zen. Luckily the hail let up to allowing me to enjoy these stretches of road. Highway 20 is wider in this area than you’d expect. It is actually nice because it allows a view into the healthy forests for searching for deer. The four-legged creatures with a vengeance for motorcyclists are thick through this area.

In Omak, Highway 20 continues north while I shoot onto Highway 155 heading east and then south. The road twists, turns and climbs up to Disautel Summit. The hail returns. It dumps on me until I can’t take it anymore. The sign for the summit approaches. A pull out allows me to rest my wet, tired and cold bones. The rain has soaked through my worn out boots and summer leather gloves. I tried to catch the hail in the photo, but it melted rapidly and only a small portion remains sitting on my soaked glove.

The plan was to find a camp spot for the night. With this weather, those plans to rough it turned to a desire for a warm and dry hotel room. That was found at the Coulee Inn and Suites at the base of the Grand Coulee Dam. It is pure happenstance that I find the room. Their no vacancy sign is lit up the same as all the other hotels that I have passed for many miles. I stopped in to the office to see if they would help me locate an open room nearby. It just so happened that someone had cancelled their reservation for a single king room. A bit of negotiation knocked the price from $96 to $70 for the night.

My riding gear was soaked and my camping gear was damp. I was happy to be in a warm dry room.

Grand Coulee Dam

The Grand Coulee Dam is the largest hydroelectric gravity dam on the Columbia River, the largest electric-producing power plant and largest concrete structure in the United States. Also according to Wikipedia.org (the always correct online encyclopedia) it is the fifth largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world.

It is quite the site to take in. The structure is as the name says, grand. The nearly mile-long spillway holds back an enormous amount of water. The giant spillway provides a backdrop for nightly laser light shows. Since there is little else to do in Grand Coulee, it would be worth taking in. I opted for sleep instead.

It is only 100 miles (two hours) to Grand Coulee from Winthrop. It is an easy addition to a ride over the North Cascades Highway.  Be prepared for all types of weather. Riding up the North Cascades drops the temperature 20 degrees. On the east side of the mountains the mercury climbs to 90 or more degrees. As my ride exemplifies, this convergence of air temperatures often cause summer storms.

The next article will cover a loop from Grand Coulee to Kettle Falls and back to Omak. This ride hit dirt roads high above the Columbia River, two ferries and roads as close to Canada as you can get without a passport.

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Glines Canyon Dam - by Scott Church

Continuing the relaxed nature of this trip, we weren’t in a hurry to leave the comfort of our sleeping bags. The sun began to warm the ground by the time that we woke up. This was to be our last day on the Olympic Peninsula.

After gathering our food from the bear-proof cabinet, we begin striking matches for a fire. The purchased bundle of wood is too damp to ignite. After many attempts with paper and evergreen branches, I ask the neighbor for some lighter fluid. He offers small fire sticks instead. Now we’re in business. One of our camping favorites is Spam and eggs on bagels or toast. The warm breakfast gives us the kick start needed to pack up and get on with the sightseeing.

We leave Heart O’ the Hills campground at the crack of… oh heck who am I kidding? It was 11 a.m. before we were back on Hurricane Ridge heading back toward Port Angeles. As soon as we reach town we turn west on Hwy 101 for a few miles until we turn South on Olympic Hot Springs Road. This pot-hole ridden road leads pat the Altair campground to one of two dams along the Elwha River.

These dams were built with absolutely no regard for the historical lifeblood of this area. No salmon can make it past the first dam. The dam won’t block salmon passage for much longer. This is the last year that the 100-year old dam will hold back the drainage from the Elwha Mountain Range. In 2011, the dam will come down and hopefully the salmon will begin to climb the rapids to their ancestral spawning grounds for the first time since 1910.

View of the Elwha River and Glines Canyon Dam from overlook

It is easy to see why the owner of the surrounding land, Thomas Aldwell was able to convince George Glines to finance the dam projects at this location. A strong water flow carved a deep and narrow gorge that allows the natural rock walls to do much of the work. The actual dam is perhaps 100 feet long and at 110 feet high. It isn’t a huge dam by any means, but it does hold back a very large amount of wate.r It was interesting to see man’s impact on this area. A future trip may be in order to see it restored to its natural free-flowing state.

Beyond the first dam the road turns to dirt. Many hairpin turns snake their way aboce the dam to a great lookout. The road ends and hiking trails begin just a couple miles past the Elwha Dam overlook. Now familiar with the road, I exercised my throttle hand a bit to make tracks back to Port Angeles.

We arrive to Port Angeles in late afternoon. Despite the heavy tourist traffic, most stores are closed as it is a holiday. A parade marches through town. We walk the parades’ flank and do some window shopping and walk into an antique store or two. Monica is a fan o fthe Twilight books and movies. The small movie theater in downtown Port Angeles is included in a few scenes of one of the movies. This being opening weekend for the latest Twilight movie, the theater and silly teeny-bop tourist trap Eclipse-themed stores are quite busy.

We take some photos and wave goodbye to the numerous cardboard cutouts of the cast members peaking out of windows throughout Port Angeles.

Sunshine Herb and Lavender Farm Sequim, WA - by Monica Ponce-McDermott

We didn’t make it as far as we would have liked. It was time to make our way back home. It is pushing 7 pm when we arrive to the ferry town of Port Townsend. Holiday travelers in their cars are beginning to form a long line for the Port Townsend to Keystone (Whidbey Island) ferry. I find my way around the line and up to the ticket booth. They take our fare for the ride to Whidbey Island and inform us that we’ll be on the 8:30 pm sailing. It happens to be the last sailing of the day. Not knowing the schedule, we are lucky to have arrived when we did. We have an hour to wait until the ferry boards.

We leave the parking lot and ride down main street. Port Townsend is a cute town. It deserves a weekend on its own. We walk along the streets and shoreline until it is time to get on the ferry. We will take the short ride back to Port Townsend in the near future. There is a 50’s themed diner and ice cream shop with my name on them earmarked for future indulgences.

As peninsulas go, there are three options for day trips (west side, north side and east side.).  This is the final article in the four-part series covering the Olympic Peninsula. The trip is  split up into separate articles by day. This allows you to pick and choose which parts best fit with your schedule and what you’d like to see. Time didn’t allow us to make the western Pacific Ocean portion of the Olympic Peninsula. Feel free to use the comments section to post ride reports and places that you have visited in the Olympic National Park. A future trip will include routes to the Hoh Rainforest, Kalaloch and Neah Bay.