Washington Trip Report part 40 - Washington Pass

Continuing over the North Cascades passes....

From Rainy Pass I went down a bit before going up some more to Washington Pass. Everything but the road was covered in fresh snow and the scenery was stunning. There weren't many places to pull off the road, but there were almost no other cars on the road so I was able to just slow down or stop on the road to get photos. I'm sure some of these mountains have names, but I haven't had much luck figuring most of them out. (Anyone who knows their names should feel free to tell me.)







( More photos from between Rainy and Washington Passes )

This is Washington Pass, elevation 5477 feet. I think this was the highest point of my trip. Due to the time of the year I really didn't get up into the mountains much. The car said the outside temperature was 31F when I got to the pass which was slightly concerning, but the road was mostly dry and I just made sure to proceed slowly and carefully any time I had to cross wet places on the road. I never found any ice on the road, so it was all good.







The views coming down from Washington Pass were even more spectacular. I think they deserve a post of there own ... coming up soon.

Washington Trip Report part 41 - past Washington Pass

The views going downhill from Washington Pass were stunning. The sun was getting lower in the sky and the lighting on the mountain tops was golden. I had to limit the number of photos I took because I'd lost one of my camera batteries a few days earlier and the two I had left were both running out of juice.










Here you can see a bit of the golden lighting. It didn't photograph all that well.




( More, including panoramas )

Coming next: back to the dry side of Washington