With the sudden increase in cops I've been seeing on the highways these past couple years in the greater Seattle area, I'm dying to find a road with lots of twisties where I can enjoy some spirited driving without the fear of being chased by police.

I've heard that Neah Bay is pretty nice... Can you guys think of any others?

 

Chuckanut Drive near Bellingham. Can't beat it around here...

Also, have you checked out our local mini owners group, Puget Sound Mini Motoring Club? We do frequent drives and explore the area. Their website is www.psmini.org. Hope to see you around.

Daniel
"MiniZag"
2005 MCSC DS/B

 

The drive out to lake Cavanaugh is fantastic.

Take I-5 to the Stanwood (212) exit, go east to Highway 9, then head north until you get to Lake Cavanaugh Road. it's another 45 minutes of super twisty, no-yellow-line, no-cops forested driving up to the Lake.

For a longer trip, get on highway 9 further south (a very pretty but uneventful road)

If anyone else has suggestions, please post!

 

I'm from Vancouver, B.C. and for a great all day trip I like Hwy 20 East of Sedro Wooley, lunch in Winthrop then North to Oroville and back on Hwy 3 in British Columbia. Great twisties and not much in the way of po-po.

Lloyd
MCS-PW/B

 

20 is great. I'm taking it back home with my new MINI..

 

I-90, even if you see some cops (I don't usually!) out east of Issaquah has some great scenery and the speed limit is 70 :D

That would definitely make for some good weekend/evening driving (to avoid any traffic).

 

Although I wouldn't recommend going super fast on some of these roads (there are houses along the way), this is a nice twisty & scenic route:

http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/#maxp=loc...7.515114&mag=6


Its a favorite of car clubs & groups of motor cycles. I saw a group of Porsches along this route the other day (I live near it). You can end up at Snoqualmie Falls or continue on into Snoqualmie and have some pie at the cafe there.

 

Which area you do you live in. There is a great little road in Pacific just south of hwy 18 off hwy 167 one way up and one way down roads(58th pl s and 56th pl s) off west Valley hwy.
There is a great book called Destination highways for Washington state you can get at the local motorcycle shop it shows the best roads and rates them for traffic,twistiness,scenery,remoteness,pavement condition,engineering and character. The Seattle area has some great roads.


http://washington.destinationhighways.com/

 

I went for a drive on this route the other evening. VERY fun! I just wish there had been someplace to stop and enjoy the scenery at the lake. It seemed like every square inch around there was private property.

Anyone know of any other good roads that aren't terribly far from the UW campus? I've only got 3.5 weeks left here, so I have to get as many twisties in as I can before I head back to flat Florida!

 

I'm going to add Maryhill. I've never driven on it, but I saw it on my way back from MITM and I must say it is GORGEOUS.

We should put together a PNW event there - combine the forces of PSMINI with PDXMINI

 

Agreed, o-ron! Sounds like a good idea. Are you signing up to plan it?

And to add to the great driving roads, I went to a Friday Nighter rally last week and we drove on some EXCELLENT roads up near Issaquah, Carnation, Tolt, Fall City, and Redmond. Beautiful! Here's the map of the route we took. Definitely recommend driving those roads if you're in the area.

Also recommend the Friday Nighter rallies, which are lots of fun. You'll need a driver, and a navigator to follow the instructions, and it costs $15. It's a great way to spend a Friday night in my opinion! Click here for more info.

 

i just found a part of that route myself the other day - great road near those golf courses!

Here's a google-ized version of the route (more-or-less):

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=e...,0.633087&z=11

 

Old thread, but figured I'd put in my bit for the Columbia River Highway east of Portland. Fantastic drive. West bound on 84, get off at exit 35. East bound, get off i-84 on exit 17. The other side of the rivir is good too, although a little straighter and better for speed rather than turns. Still, just east of Vancouver, WA is pretty twisty.

For speed (and no turns really), take 240 north out of Richland, WA. A very long stretch of very deserted highway.

Highway 12 from Lewiston, ID to Missoula, MT is an incredible and long drive. Definitely a summer one, through the mountains and all, but fantastic. I've not gotten to drive this one in my mini yet, but even in a civic it was a blast.

A little further out, the Going to the Sun Highway in Glacier National Park will be good once the construction gets done. You might also only want to get this on Labor Day weekend. People tend to be back in school, the traffic dies down a lot. However, it's also the last weekend the park is open

Anyone tried 142 west of Goldendale and north of Lyle? Just saw it on google maps and it looks very nice.. through Klickitat, along a river.

 

Eastern WA has some great MINI roads. From Wenatchee on Highway 2 N, head to Douglas, then out Moses Coulee. The Channeled Scablands are amazing and well worth a look. Highway 97 between Wenatchee and Ellensburg is quite spectacular (especially if it's not busy--don't know if that happens anymore). And much of Highway 97 down toward Goldendale is nice but there are some 'long, dry stretches'. I always liked that country around Goldendale. It's great in the spring (but watch for ticks)!

 

Some of the best "Twisties" in the US are found in the Palouse. I am an old mtrcycle rider with too many miles but now drive my Mini on these roads. The wheat fields starting just south of Spokane and culminating going down the "Spiral" highway to Lewiston. Take the Cheney/Plaza road south to Dusty, head back to Colfax, then Pullman to Lewiston. From Lewiston up to Orofino, go north the "Harvard" Id, and eventually to St Maries Id. From St Maries Id along the eastern side of Lake Coeur d Alene. By then you will have had enough of the twisties and you can bolt for Seattle area on I90. There's a lot more of these roads in western Id and if you pick the small towns to run through and stay off 95 and 195 you'll get the true flavor of desolate roads but good roads, small rural towns, few cops, friendly country folk, good food (country cookin), layed back lifestyle, beautiful scenery. Make sure you leave the "Seattle attitude" in Seattle.

 

I'd forgotten all about this thread... alright, here's a few more:

highway 730 eat out of umatilla... technically oregon, but a nice little drive through a canyon there along the pendleton cold springs highway

several of the state mini clubs did the Mabton-Bickleton highway in April, down to Goldendale. I continued on down to Lyle via Klickitat. Excellent drive there, with pretty windmills along the way.

wife and I took 129 south out of Clarkston through Anatone and continued down to Enterprise and into Hells Canyon. A blast, no doubt. Sadly, the Tryoy-Promise-Maxville area proved to be all gravel and I didn't want to chip up my car

 

Highway 6 from Hillsborough to Tillamook in Oregon is awesome. That, and when you get to Tillamook, you can get some cheese

 

Highway 410 from Enumclaw to Naches is good fun in the spring/summer.

 

They just widened Highway 240 from just west of Richland to about 8 miles east of Highway 24. They increased the width of the shoulders and now that section is patrolled. It never was before, because the shoulders were narrow as a security measure for the Hanford site and there was nowhere to pull anyone over. They didn't want people stopping anyway, since the highway goes through the site.

The route from Lyle to Goldendale is pretty nice along the river, but it straightens out at the north end of the canyon as you head east to Goldendale. Which lets you catch your breath a bit before you go through Goldendale and take the Bickleton highway to Bickelton and on to Mabton.

Some very nice tight corners into/out of Badger Gulch and going down the hill into Mabton. Watch out for motorcycles though, it's a popular route for the 2 wheelers.

 

A 2-3 mile stretch of road that is loads of fun is on HWY 7 on the way to Mt. Rainier. At La Grande, which is about 2-3 miles from the west end of Alder Lake, the road is a constant stretch of twists and turns with banked corners. Loads of fun for the Minis and a very scenic drive up to the mountain.