Day Twenty Two - WA-20 and Ellensburg

Today was an outstanding day. We get a reasonable start, but we only had 300 miles scheduled so we weren't in any big rush. We chatted up a group of riders at the breakfast bar in the hotel and swapped some stories before everyone got out on the road. We snagged some gas at  Costco and then headed east on WA-20. Be sure to click on the highlighted text to the left for a much more detailed explanation of what we rode today!

Day 22 Track

The initial section is nothing to write home about, just another two lane road going through a town every 5 to 20 miles, but later it starts hugging the Skagit River and gets twistier and more scenic. Then it enters the Northern Cascades National Park and it gets Top 15 Motorcycle road status.The road climbs up from 400 ft to just over 5400 ft in 50 miles of wide sweeping turns and awesome views of snow capped mountains. We had to pass a couple of pokey cagers, and then got stuck behind a pair of Harleys who were in no hurry, so we pulled off at an overlook to let them get out and away. The overlook is at Diablo Lake which is a stunning emerald green lake formed by Diablo Dam for hydroelectric power. It can be seen in the center of the photo below.

Diablo Lake

The scenery in every direction is totally awesome.

From the Diablo Lake overlook - photo by Larry

The bikes at Diablo Lake overlook

We didn't dally too long here and now we had an open road to run on up the road, culmination in the Washington Pass and descent thereafter. Larry has ridden this road several times and this was my third pass and we both agree that we would never get tired or riding this road.  This is a true bucket list road for any motorcyclist.

Washington Pass

And then there's the descent....

Coming down the eastern slope from Washington Pass 

Note the waterfall in the above photo, as well as how the road appears to be heading into the mountain - Just past where Larry is the road makes a sweeping 180 turn the left.

From here the road straightens out but continues a fairly steep descent and drops our elevation back down to 1700 ft and drops us into a quaint little town named Winthrop. We stop here for a coffee break.

Coffee Break in Winthrop WA 

From here we continue south on 20 until it turns eastward where we continue south on Hwy 153. This brings us down through the Methow Valley, and we parallel the Methow River. We actually cross it several times until we get to the little town of Pateros where the Methos River empties into the Columbia River and we get on Hwy 97 to now follow the Columbia south. It's finally starting to get hot - into the upper 80s and lower 90s so we stop for a lunch break in Chelan WA. It is here we find out that our planned route is blocked 28 miles to the south due to a forest fire, but there' an alternate route that simply takes us down along the other side f the Columbia River. It is from this detour that I caught some photos of the fire responsible.

Fire in the slopes n the west side of the Columbia River. We are on the east side in this photo.

If you look closely at the fire photo above the trees you see on both sides of the road - are apple trees. They were never ending all along this corridor, and there were also some peaches, cherries, apricots and other fruit trees as well. We would later stop and pick up a couple of huge sweet peaches, and 2 lbs of Bing Cherries to snack on.

97 Joins Hwy 2 and jogs westward for a bit just north of Wenachee, and then 97 splits off 2 to head south again and we are still on it. We get to go through the Wenachee National Forest and up nd over yet another pass, which is a welcome relief from the heat. We would drop 10 degrees while topping the pass!

After that we continue on down 97 right into the town of Ellensburg where we capture another I've Been Everywhere waypoint.

I've Been Everywhere - Ellensburg

Stats for today: 305.9 miles in 7:42 elapsed time, 5:55 saddle time