While the North Cascades Scenic Highway remains closed to motorized traffic as snow clearing continues, portions of the road are available to ambitious cyclists.
Despite an insistent spring snowfall, Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) crews made progress in their annual task of clearing the North Cascades Scenic Highway for travel during their third week of work on the cross-mountain route. According to WSDOT’s weekly report (as of Friday, April 15), the crews “were able to clear the Cutthroat avalanche paths from the east and have reached the Liberty Bell avalanche paths between milepost 163 and 164.”
“The Liberty Bell group includes three of the largest avalanche paths on Washington Pass and we expect that it will take all next week to clear them,” WSDOT said. “The avalanche crew supervisor reported soft snowpack but lots of it.”
From the west side, crews reached milepost 150. With the Liberty Bell chutes still ahead on the east and a week of snowfall on the uncleared road between the east and west crews, reopening is still a couple weeks away, WSDOT said.
From the Methow Valley side, the highway is open for motorized traffic to the Silver Star gate west of Mazama, and for bicycle traffic beyond the gate.
Snow-clearing work began on March 28 this year. Last year, clearing began on April 5 and the route opened on May 5.
