{"id":869,"date":"2015-11-29T19:11:42","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T03:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/craigromano.com\/blog\/?p=869"},"modified":"2020-12-21T13:32:43","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T21:32:43","slug":"white-knuckle-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigromano.com\/?p=869","title":{"rendered":"Washington’s Top Three White-knuckle Trailhead Roads"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

The beginning of the Obstruction Point Road. Let the fun begin!<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s nice when we can reach our favorite trailheads via nice paved roads\u2014or at least wide, well-graded and regularly maintained gravel roads. But unfortunately that\u2019s not usually the case\u2014and we are often faced with the dilemma of having to drive a harrowing road to get to the trail. While some of us drive pickups and SUVs and love the challenge of a steep, twisting road with some exposure\u2014many of us drive sedans and are terrified driving Queen Anne Hill or the Terwilliger Curves \u2013never mind some narrow mountain byway.<\/p>\n

With that said\u2014here are three of my picks for Washington\u2019s most harrowing white-knuckle drives to trails that you definitely want to hike.<\/p>\n

Harts Pass Road<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

A very lonely Sullivan Mountain Lookout.<\/p><\/div>\n

Originally built to access mines and the booming mining towns of Chancellor and Barron\u2014this North Cascades road leads to some amazing high country hikes. The road itself is full of views and has the distinction of being the highest public road in Washington going all the way to 7400 foot Slate Peak\u2014although you\u2019ll need to walk the last .25 mile on the road. What makes this 12 mile road that climbs nearly 5000 vertical feet so nerve wracking is the steep cliff hugging no guardrail stretch known as Dead horse Point. The road was built for narrow gauge trucks, not wide sedans and rigs. Meet another vehicle on this stretch and one of you will have to do some backing up making sure not to get too close to the edge\u2014or you\u2019ll be meeting that unfortunate horse.<\/p>\n

Obstruction Point Road<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most drivers are perfectly content driving the twisty but well maintained and paved 17.5 mile road to Hurricane Ridge. But if you want to get to two of the finest hikes in the Olympic National Park; Grand Pass and Grand Valley\u2014you\u2019ll have to negotiate this 7.7 mile gravel ridge hugging road to 6400-foot Obstruction Point. \u00a0The worst part is probably the first half mile\u2014actually the first few feet as you\u2019ll need to make a sharp turn and not be tempted to look right to the drop all the way to the Elwha Valley. You\u2019ll drive down and up and down again on this roller-coaster route traversing meadows and rounding knolls and trying not to meet a deer in your grill–and trying \u00a0not to be distracted at all the incredible alpine beauty spread out in front \u00a0of you before you even get to the trailhead.<\/p>\n

Sullivan Mountain Lookout Road<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

Harts Pass road from above Harts Pass and everything else!<\/p><\/div>\n

Truly one of the most god-awful roads I have ever had the pleasure of taking a rental car up! With my fellow intrepid guidebook author friend Aaron Theisen <\/a>we crawled up this 7 mile road which gains more than 3000 feet and taking us 1 hour and 30 minutes. Never driving faster than 10 mph, most of the way I was hopping out of the passenger side to roll rocks off the embankment and direct Aaron through tight and sloped cliff side stretches. We made a game of can we clear that rock and contemplated that if we blew a tire or worse–it was going to be a long hike out after doing a long hike on the incredibly scenic Crowell Ridge\u2014one of the most spectacular hikes east of the Cascades.<\/p>\n

How about you? What are your three top White-knuckle trailhead drives in Washington?<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Detailed information on the great hikes that emanate from these nerve-wracking roads, consult Day Hiking North Cascades<\/a> for Harts Pass, Day Hiking Olympic Peninsula<\/a> for Obstruction Point and Day Hiking Eastern Washington<\/a> for Sullivan Lookout<\/strong>.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s nice when we can reach our favorite trailheads via nice paved roads\u2014or at least wide, well-graded and regularly maintained gravel roads. But unfortunately that\u2019s not usually the case\u2014and we are often faced with the dilemma of having to drive a harrowing road to get to the trail. While some of us drive pickups and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13,15,16,22,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-day-hiking-eastern-washington","category-day-hiking-north-cascades","category-day-hiking-olympic-penisula","category-musings","category-trailhead-issues-and-concerns"],"yoast_head":"\nWashington's Top Three White-knuckle Trailhead Roads » Craig Romano<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/craigromano.com\/?p=869\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Washington's Top Three White-knuckle Trailhead Roads » Craig Romano\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s nice when we can reach our favorite trailheads via nice paved roads\u2014or at least wide, well-graded and regularly maintained gravel roads. 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