The Prettiest Road Trip in the Pacific Northwest
Glacial rock gives Diablo Lake its famous blue-green hue.
Image: Shutterstock by Sunsinger
► Mile 29
Start the trip with industrial chic in the town of Concrete, where the old cement plant (this was once known as Cement City) is now Instagram fodder with a brutalist vibe.
► Mile 61
The company town of Newhalem is beautiful by day—historic riverside dam buildings, a suspension bridge—and even better by night, when Seattle City Light illuminates Ladder Creek Falls with a multicolor LED light show.
► Mile 72
The Diablo Lake Overlook (pictured above) shows off the electric blue waters below with a backdrop of snow-dusted peaks; you can swim from nearby Colonial Creek Campground, but even in summer it’s an arctic dip.
► Mile 102
Washington Pass, crowned by the jagged Liberty Bell massif, demands a stop before Highway 20 zigzags downhill; it’s impossible not to crane one’s neck from the bare granite peaks to the forested valley floor while driving.
► Mile 133
Park along the old-fashioned wooden sidewalks of Winthrop’s Old West downtown, but save the picture-taking for the burbling Methow River.
