Washington State Route 20 is the longest state highway which travels 436 miles running east-west starting at the Idaho Border in Newport all the way to Discovery Bay where SR 20 meets US 101. This highway is part of the Washington State Ferry system, using the Port Townsend -Keystone route. Highway 20 crosses Whidbey Island to the mainland via the Deception Pass Bridge. From there heads north towards Anacortes but then turns east heading toward I-5 and the Cascades passing through Burlington, Sedro Woolley, Concrete, Marblemount and Newhalem where the route gets its secondary name "the North Cascades Highway". The road gets this name as it passes through the North Cascades National Park. After crossing the Cascade Range, the highway drops into the Methow Valley through the towns of Mazama, Winthrop and Twisp on its way towards the town of Okanogan. At Okanogan, Highway 20 aligns with US 97 as it heads north to Tonasket. There it turns east and heads towards Wauconda and Replublic and the north eastern towns of Kettle Falls and Colville before turning south near the Idaho Border and heads down towards Newport.
Where SR 20 crosses the North Cascades, the road will close during the winter and early part of the spring as the state does not plow the highway during the winter months. While not an Interstate, SR 20 is a vital highway for the cities and towns of north central Washington as it is the only through-way going through the northern tier of the state.
The cache has a nice view of SR 20 as well as the orchards below with the Methow River beyond that. Enjoy the view and the cache.
In September 2002, a group of 19 concerned geocachers scheduled a meeting after hearing that the Washington State Parks was considering banning geocaches in the state park system. Out of this meeting, the Washington State Geocaching Association (WSGA) was "born" with its core values of promoting geocaching as a fun, family-oriented outdoor activity that increases awareness and appreciation of the environment and our parks and trails, provide opportunities for participants to enjoy geocaching and to socialize with other geocaches, educate park systems and land managers about geocaching and its benefits, increase awareness and support of the geocaching through interaction with other outdoor groups and the public, encourage low-impact geocaching and promote stewardship of our natural resources, and support "Cache In Trash Out" activities to help maintain parks and trail systems.
In 2022, the WSGA turns 20 years young. To celebrate this milestone, the WSGA is hosting a 20th-anniversary GeoTour. This GeoTour will give you the opportunity to travel to all corners of the Evergreen State while you search for 140 GeoTour caches. To make it easier to tackle such a large GeoTour, each of our 7 regional chapters will host a bite-sized GeoTour consisting of 20 GeoTour caches with the entire GeoTour consisting of 140 caches. To learn more about our GeoTour, please visit the GeoTour page on our website which you can find HERE. We hope that you enjoy getting back out on the road while touring around Washington State. If you have any questions about our GeoTour, you can reach out to us via the contact tab on our website.
GEOTOUR UPDATE
The WSGA's 20th Anniversary GeoTour will end on December
31, 2024, at
11:59pm PT.
You will only have until this date and time to find the
geocaches, post all of your logs for the digital souvenirs (if qualified), and
submit all of your passports of unique codes for the geocoins (if qualified).
There will be no exceptions.