Despite the recent snowfall, the Washington State Department of Transportation announced yesterday that the scenic North Cascades Highway will reopen Friday, April 16th at noon! The highway had been closed for the winter season.
The open highway, sunshine, and the Skagit County Tulip Festival, can mean only one thing: Spring has officially arrived! It’s time to hit the road. Are you ready for some North Cascades Highway scenic driving?
After the long, gray winter, Washington’s Skagit County is abloom with color. The 2010 Tulip Festival is in full swing until the end of April.
Taking the scenic route to the festivities is our specialty! From Seattle, we have two recommendations to bring you to La Conner, Mount Vernon, and Sedro Woolley.
Our first option is to take a short ferry ride to Whidbey Island. The winding roads travel alongside forest, farmland, quaint towns, and stunning water views. After Deception Pass and Anacortes, you will arrive at the Tulip Festival.
Our second recommendation is our newest drive on myscenicdrives.com, The Rockport Loop. The Rockport Loop starts in Arlington, follows Washington Highway 530 along the Sauk River through the dense forest, and at Rockport, joins onto Washington Highway 20 heading west towards Sedro Woolley and the Festival’s festivities.
Before heading back home or if you are coming from north of Bellingham, check out Chuckanut Drive, often referred to as Washington’s Big Sur. This cliffhanger provides spectacular views of the San Juan Islands and the bays below, and has both some hiking opportunities and beach access.
The tulips bloomed early this year, so for the best experience, plan to make your trip this weekend. For more information about the Tulip Festival, visit tulipfestival.org. Enjoy!
Have you had a chance to try myscenicdrives.com on your phone or other mobile device? We’ve taken a little extra time to make your mobile experience as special as our desktop experience no matter which phone you use.
Start up your browser and go to www.myscenicdrives.com. Our servers will automatically provide you with our mobile experience.
Using our mobile version is just like using our desktop version. You start by telling us where you are. If you are on an Android or IPhone, there’s one more feature that will make your experience even better…
On Android and IPhone devices, there’s no need to type in your location. We can use your phone’s GPS. From our home page, click the Use GPS button and once you approve that you’re okay with sharing your location with us, we’ll present you with the scenic drives near you. This is a great feature for those times when you are exploring a new area and want to find a scenic route home.
Scroll through the list and pick a scenic drive. Each of our drives features a table of contents at the top, allowing you to easily zoom to the features you are most interested in and formatted to minimize scrolling.
Note: Some devices may not display our maps. We are aware of this and are working on a solution.
Whether you are on your desktop or on the road, all of our drives feature GPS directions in the Tools section. While our desktop version supports many formats, our mobile version currently only provides Google Maps Directions (KML) as it is widely available on most phones.
To use these directions, head down to the Tools section of the drive and copy the Google Maps KML link.
Next open Google Maps (or Maps on the IPhone). In the Search field, paste in the link and click Search. Your phone will then provide you the map and directions you need to get going!
If you have a suggestion or a problem using our mobile site or regular site, please let us know! We’re always trying to make improvements that will help you focus on scenic driving.
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