*Motorcycle Roads NorthWest
Exploring the Asphalt Ribbons of the Pacific Northwest
US Route 97 ‘Blewett Pass Highway’
The Blewett Pass Highway was once one of the most heavily-traveled passes in Washington. Although US Route 97 is now the only route to traverse this roadway, US 10 was once routed over Blewett to Wenatchee for the Columbia River crossing. Nowadays, US 10 no longer exists in the West and I-90 is routed southeast, leaving a sleepy route mostly frequented by RVs and outdoor enthusiasts.The landscape on the north side of the pass is quite alpine and very green with thick evergreen forests. The trees come up within a few feet of the roadway, creating a serious ‘hoofed rodent’ problem at twilight. These trees go right up to the top of the pass, before changing drastically as you come down the south side.
View to the SW from the north end of BPH.
The south end of the Blewett Pass Highway is dry, stark, and arid. What few trees are to be seen are stunted and vastly outnumbered by low shrubs and sagebrush. The desertscape in the Cle Elum area is most plainly prone to grassfires as I drove through several fresh burn zones right up along the highway. US 97 along the Blewett Pass Highway is comprised mostly of moderate to high-speed sweepers.
Many of the steeper uphill sections have a 2-lane passing zone, with the uphill pair separated by a dotted or solid double yellow line (as appropriate for visibility). BPH is also refreshingly free from overuse of said double-yellow lines. Passing on a double-yellow simply isn’t necessary on weekdays, as the passing zones are very straight, long, and well thought out. The same cannot be said for the road surface itself unfortunately, as many parts of the highway were patchy (but not too choppy) in both straights and corners.
All in all, US97 is a nice piece of country roadway. Another very good reason to avoid the mad rush of the I-5 corridor, BPH provides the touring motorcyclist with more fun and a more relaxed pace.
Map of the US97 section traversing Blewett Pass
- Road Name: US Route 97 via Blewett(Swauk) Pass
- Counties: Chelan, Kittitas
- Length: 35
- Towns: Blewett, Dryden, Peshastin, Virden
Google Map:
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September 16th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
There is another way to thread this pass… It is Old Blewitt Pass Rd. maintained by the county (loosly speaking) and sporting lots of hairpins and tight curves. It runs across the wierd bulge to the east of Hwy 97. There is a med. sized brown and white state sign on the right of 97 to mark the entrance. This road is paved but has shallow potholes and some gravel of the inside and outside edges of the curves. I wouldn’t say this is a high speed route but it was fun and very scenic. More traffic might just garner more pavement from the county! On the maps there appear to be many roads connecting to the pass. This is decieving. Stick to the pavement and you won’t get lost. The pass joins back up with 97 at the north end of the bulge. The route is best seen on a paper map instaed of Google maps.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
My understanding is that this road is owned by the Forest Service nowadays as it’s now numbered as FS 7320. Probably a very low likelihood of getting any serious road maintenance out of the USFS.
Re: connector roads: That’s one thing the DeLorme Washington Gazetteer gets right about FS 7320 is that there’s no major connectors. Usually it’s optimistic to the point of idiocy about what actually comprises a road.
I still have a copy of my Blewett vs. Swauk rant around here somewhere. I’ll post it up if I can find it. For some reason their little stunt of re-routing the road and then re-naming the new route over Swauk Pass as Blewett Pass irks me.