Pacific Northwest Backroad Adventures

I now have day two photos of my overland tour of the Cascade Mountains of Washington state uploaded and available for viewing at Washington Cascade Mountains Overland Tour 2007 - Day Two Photos

The photos were taken between Mt. Adams, Washington and the second day’s campsite near Blewett Pass (near Cle Elum, WA).

Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 - Introduction
Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 - Day One
Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 - Day Two
Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 - Day Three
Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 - Day Four
Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 - Final Thoughts

For the past year, I’ve had the desire to map out and drive an overland route through the Cascade Mountains of Washington state from the Columbia River near Oregon all the way to northern border with British Columbia.

Last year (August 2006), my son and I completed a portion of this route from Cle Elum to Mt. Adams (see Cascade Overland Adventure - August 2006) but did not go any further South because of time constraints. At the time, I knew little of any possible routes from I-90 North to British Columbia.

Shortly after that trip last August, I sold my Jeep YJ Wrangler and purchased my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser with the goal in mind to make it into an overland expedition vehicle.

Winter and Spring came and finally the snow thawed in the high country. With vacation scheduled for August, I started getting serious about mapping out a route through the Washington Cascades.
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This past Saturday was a typical spring day in Western Washington - “Rain Turning to Showers”. Of course, if you never lived in Washington, you may be puzzled by such a forecast. I wanted to get out of the house and do something outside so I checked the statewide forecast for Washington. The coast was supposed to clear up that afternoon and Eastern Washington was going to mostly cloudy but only a 20 percent chance of rain. Sweet, over the Cascades we go.

With no real destination in mind, my son Steven and I loaded up the dog, camera gear and some basic emergency supplies (sleeping bag, tools, water, food, etc. in case the unexpected happens) in the Land Cruiser and left our home in Edgewood, Washington and headed east on I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass.

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With an actual weekend off, and knowing that I would probably soon be selling my Jeep Wrangler to buy a larger adventure vehicle, it was time for a three day Jeep adventure.

Our first goal (my son Steven and myself) was to travel from I-90 near Cle Elum, Washington to Highway 410 near Cliffdell, Washington via logging roads. I heard people talk about such a road in the past, but have never attempted to locate it.

Our second goal was to travel from Highway 410 to Highway 12 over logging roads. We would then travel Highway 12 over White Pass to Packwood. From Packwood, we would head South on logging roads towards Mt. Adams and locate a campsite for the night.

As in previous adventures, I turned to the book Washington Byways: Backcountry Drives For The Whole Family by Tony Huegel for some of my planning. The most likely route was to use Tour 43 - Quartz Mountain as a starting point for our weekend adventure.

Cascade Overland Adventure: Intro | Day One | Day Two | Day Three

I just completed an overland adventure by Jeep from Cle Elum, WA (I-90) to SR410, to US Highway 12, to Mt Adams, to Mt. St. Helens and posted the pictures at Photos from Cascade Overland Adventure - August 2006.

Enjoy.