North Central Cascades

North Central Cascades is in the North Cascades region of Washington.

Cities

The North Central Cascades includes Kittias, Chelan and Okanogan counties in the north central part of the state.

Kittitas County

• 1 Ellensburg — home of Central Washington University and the Ellensburg Rodeo. County seat of Kittitas County
• 2 Cle Elum — where Northern Exposure was filmed

Chelan County

• 3 Wenatchee — the "Apple Capital of the World". County seat of Chelan County
• 4 Cashmere — town with a candy factory
• 5 Chelan — ride a ferry up 50-mile Lake Chelan to the historic and unique town of Stehekin
• 6 Leavenworth — a Bavarian-themed village

Okanogan County

• 7 Okanogan - county seat of Okanogan County
• Conconully
• Elmer City
• Nespelem
• 8 Omak
• 9 Oroville
• 10 Pateros
• 11 Tonasket
• 12 Twisp
• 13 Winthrop — a town with the feel of the Old West frontier

Other destinations

• Colville Indian Reservation
• 1 Grand Coulee Dam — the largest hydroelectric producer in the country
• 2 North Cascades National Park — Jagged peaks, deep valleys, cascading waterfalls and over 300 glaciers adorn the scenic North Cascades Highway
• 3 Snoqualmie Pass — a ski resort along I-90
• 4 Stevens Pass — a ski resort along US-2
• Split Rock Recreation Site — on the shores of Palmer Lake, 5 miles north of Loomis along the Loomis-Oroville Road.

Talk

The primary language is English.

Get in

By car

From the Seattle area, you can reach the North Central Cascades by I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass to Ellensburg or US-2 over Stevens Pass to Wenatchee. Either way it is about a 2-2.5 hour drive. From Spokane to the east, you can take either US-2 or I-90 to the region. There is a border crossing on US-97 that connects the region to the Okanogan Valley in British Columbia.

By train

The only train service to this area is on Amtrak's Empire Builder that stops at Wenatchee. The Empire Builder goes across the northern United States from Seattle to Chicago.

By air

Pangborn Memorial Airport in Wenatchee has commercial flights to Seattle only. It is probably easier just to take a flight to Seattle and then drive to this region.

Get around

Public transportation is limited, so driving is basically the only way to see this region. The major north-south route is US-97, which goes through the middle of the region connecting Ellensburg, Wenatchee and Omak. East-west highways include I-90 through Ellensburg, US-2 through Wenatchee and Leavenworth and WA-20 through Winthrop and Omak.

See

Itineraries

• Mountains to Sound Greenway, a National Scenic Byway through the Central Cascades, includes the stretch of I-90 through Kittitas County.
• North Cascade Loop, a scenic drive across the North Cascades Highway, along the Columbia River Gorge, and the Stevens Pass Highway.