Scubadude62-WO
Senior Member
This is my final road report for this trip. This route was driving (mostly) on a Saturday morning.
What should have been a leisurely drive of about 3 hours and 45 minutes wound up being a 4 and a half hour slog through construction and traffic.
US-2 is a major cross-mountain route in Washington, and one of only two that are convenient to Seattle, the other being I-90 across Snoqualmie Pass. Saturday mornings eastbound and Sunday afternoons westbound, and 3-day weekends, heavy traffic is the norm. The highway is 2-lanes for almost the entire length, except right at Stevens Pass, and going through Monroe. There are occasional truck passing lanes, but not many.
The surface of US-2 from Cashmere to the Stevens Pass summit is nice. It starts with a very scenic drive along a river with a moderate grade - I was able to maintain the speed limit with no problem. It has decent alignment and is not too steep until almost to the pass. There, I was slowed to just over 40mph, but not until the 2-lane highway became a 4-lane highway. Coming down on the west side is another matter. While the highway down on the west side is still 4 lanes, it can be challenging, as the roadway is steep, and has several curves marked at 40mph (I felt much more comfortable at 35mph - take this hill slow), and there's a VERY steep and deep (500ft+) drop on your right side. At the bottom of the hill is a 180° turn that you'll want to be at 40mph before you get close. The pass is well signed, both uphill and downhill, in both directions.
Once off the pass, the road went back to 2-lanes, but the road surface was in fair condition, as best. Not tooth-rattling bumps, but more like short undulations in the roadway that caused our rig to buck several times, sometimes front to back, sometime side to side. I was quite disappointed in how bad the highway has become (I drive this route fairly often - at least quarterly, sometimes in the RV, sometimes in our car).
Starting in Sultan, traffic starts to really thicken, and gets really bad in Monroe. It didn't help that the Evergreen State Fair was in full session, adding to the traffic woes.
The merge from US-2 to I-5 north in Everett is always stressful - you need to merge right very quickly as your lane ends, then the lane you've merged into becomes an exit only lane, so you need to get over two lanes fairly quickly. Traffic is always backed up in this area, no matter what day of the week.
Once on I-5, we ran into two construction issues. The first was near the Marysville exit, where the 4 lanes are narrowed to just 2, then, just north of Arlington, the roadway narrows again to 2 lanes for a long-term bridge project. Those two areas alone added over 20 minutes to our travel.
Up in Mt. Vernon, we chose to exit at Kinkaid and take WA-236 instead of taking I-5 into Burlington and the WA-20 interchange, as there was yet another backup forming as we exited. WA-20 is 4 lanes from I-5 to Anacortes, while WA-236 is 2 lanes until it meets up with WA-20, but is usually the faster route.
Once on WA-20, it was smooth sailing, except for that area right at the Deception Pass Bridge. The State Park there is one of the most popular in the state, and sunny summer weekends often have more than the usual traffic across the bridge. While WA-20 proper turns left at the big roundabout with a Spur heading into Anacortes, the Spur is 4 lanes while the main highway is 2 lanes until you get into Oak Harbor.
Sorry I rambled a bit on this one, but it's my home turf and know these roads better than the back of my hand.
What should have been a leisurely drive of about 3 hours and 45 minutes wound up being a 4 and a half hour slog through construction and traffic.
US-2 is a major cross-mountain route in Washington, and one of only two that are convenient to Seattle, the other being I-90 across Snoqualmie Pass. Saturday mornings eastbound and Sunday afternoons westbound, and 3-day weekends, heavy traffic is the norm. The highway is 2-lanes for almost the entire length, except right at Stevens Pass, and going through Monroe. There are occasional truck passing lanes, but not many.
The surface of US-2 from Cashmere to the Stevens Pass summit is nice. It starts with a very scenic drive along a river with a moderate grade - I was able to maintain the speed limit with no problem. It has decent alignment and is not too steep until almost to the pass. There, I was slowed to just over 40mph, but not until the 2-lane highway became a 4-lane highway. Coming down on the west side is another matter. While the highway down on the west side is still 4 lanes, it can be challenging, as the roadway is steep, and has several curves marked at 40mph (I felt much more comfortable at 35mph - take this hill slow), and there's a VERY steep and deep (500ft+) drop on your right side. At the bottom of the hill is a 180° turn that you'll want to be at 40mph before you get close. The pass is well signed, both uphill and downhill, in both directions.
Once off the pass, the road went back to 2-lanes, but the road surface was in fair condition, as best. Not tooth-rattling bumps, but more like short undulations in the roadway that caused our rig to buck several times, sometimes front to back, sometime side to side. I was quite disappointed in how bad the highway has become (I drive this route fairly often - at least quarterly, sometimes in the RV, sometimes in our car).
Starting in Sultan, traffic starts to really thicken, and gets really bad in Monroe. It didn't help that the Evergreen State Fair was in full session, adding to the traffic woes.
The merge from US-2 to I-5 north in Everett is always stressful - you need to merge right very quickly as your lane ends, then the lane you've merged into becomes an exit only lane, so you need to get over two lanes fairly quickly. Traffic is always backed up in this area, no matter what day of the week.
Once on I-5, we ran into two construction issues. The first was near the Marysville exit, where the 4 lanes are narrowed to just 2, then, just north of Arlington, the roadway narrows again to 2 lanes for a long-term bridge project. Those two areas alone added over 20 minutes to our travel.
Up in Mt. Vernon, we chose to exit at Kinkaid and take WA-236 instead of taking I-5 into Burlington and the WA-20 interchange, as there was yet another backup forming as we exited. WA-20 is 4 lanes from I-5 to Anacortes, while WA-236 is 2 lanes until it meets up with WA-20, but is usually the faster route.
Once on WA-20, it was smooth sailing, except for that area right at the Deception Pass Bridge. The State Park there is one of the most popular in the state, and sunny summer weekends often have more than the usual traffic across the bridge. While WA-20 proper turns left at the big roundabout with a Spur heading into Anacortes, the Spur is 4 lanes while the main highway is 2 lanes until you get into Oak Harbor.
Sorry I rambled a bit on this one, but it's my home turf and know these roads better than the back of my hand.
