The 350 miles of US-2 across Washington State contain enough contrasting landscapes to fill many states. West to east, the route begins at the industrial fringes of Seattle and the Puget Sound, passing through a couple of Victorian-era towns before climbing steeply up toward the towering peaks, dense forests, and pristine lakes of the Cascade Mountains. East of the Cascade crest, the rugged volcanic landscape suddenly becomes drier and much more sparse, the dense forests fading first into lush farmlands and orchards reclaimed from the natural desert, then continuing across increasingly barren sagebrush plains into Idaho.
Though traffic can be heavy on long summer weekends, and also in winter in the Cascades section, along US-2 it is usually light, since most of the 18-wheelers and other heavy vehicles follow the parallel I-90 freeway, 25 miles to the south.
Midway between Seattle and Everett, the town of Edmonds has frequent Washington State Ferry service (206/464-6400 or 800/843-3779) across Puget Sound to the Olympic Peninsula, start of our Pacific Coast road trip.
