Cascade Mountains
Cascade Mountains
5
About
Continuation of the Sierra Nevada range, these mountains extend from Washington to California.
Suggest edits to improve what we show.
Improve this listingTours & experiences
Explore different ways to experience this place.
Be the first to upload a photo
Revenue impacts the experiences featured on this page, learn more.
Top ways to experience Cascade Mountains and nearby attractions
Contribute
Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
We perform checks on reviews.
Tripadvisor’s approach to reviews
Before posting, each Tripadvisor review goes through an automated tracking system, which collects information, answering the following questions: how, what, where and when. If the system detects something that potentially contradicts our community guidelines, the review is not published.
When the system detects a problem, a review may be automatically rejected, sent to the reviewer for validation, or manually reviewed by our team of content specialists, who work 24/7 to maintain the quality of the reviews on our site.
Our team checks each review posted on the site disputed by our community as not meeting our community guidelines.
Learn more about our review moderation.
5.0
1 review
Excellent
1
Very good
0
Average
0
Poor
0
Terrible
0
booradley2
san diego213 contributions
In 2001 I drove up into the Cascades on Highway 20 and I'm still haunted by the scenery along that road. I made the drive in very late winter, on the day after a storm had passed across the region. The sky on that morning was still full of storm wrack, but the sun was beginning to occasoinally break through the murk. The Cascades are very rugged mountains and, in bad weather, rather somber-looking, even forbidding. Crossing the Willamette Valley, Highway 20 had been a broad high-speed four-lane. As soon as it began climbing the foothills, however, it narrowed down to primative two-lane blacktop and began to twist and turn. It looked like a route that moonshiners would favor. At the base of the mountains the road traveled through a tiny patch of temporate rain forest. The rain forest only lasted for a minute or two, but the effect it had on me was profound. I'd never seen such a landscape------at least not while I was awake. It was surreal, id-like. Scenery from a dream. Every tree trunk, and many of the lower limbs, was wrapped in a thick fur-like coat of moss. The moss was green, of course, but the shades ranged from deepest green to wild day-glo tones. In places, the trees alongside the highway blocked out the sky. At these times the forest became claustrophobic, almost frightening. I half-expected to see Hansel and Gretel wandering lost among the cedars. Higher up, the forest thinned out a bit. The sun came out and long pink beams of cheery early-morning light slanted down through the immense trees. I stopped the car on the side of the road and got out. The only sound was the sighing of the wind through the damp, dripping forest canopy. It was amazing what a change the sunlight had on the mood of the forest. What had been creepy down below was now almost innocent. It felt as though I had gone back to the dawn of the world. In my opinion, anyone who visits Portland for an extended period of time during the winter months and fails to drive up into the Cascade Mountains is making a HUGE mistake. Well, let me amend that last statement. The route may not be for everyone. Driving Highway 20 at the higher elevations in winter can be somewhat nerve-wracking. I know because I lost it on one of the hairpins-----I slid across the opposite lane and ended up on the shoulder of the road. And I was lucky to have come to rest where I did. The shoulders are narrow and the drop-offs are wicked. And there are no guard rails. Above 4000 feet, the road was packed snow ( even though it had been plowed). I was in a hurry that day, but you can't drive this road in a hurry. Nor should you----it deserves to be savored.
Written 25 July 2006
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
No questions have been asked about this experience
Revenue impacts the experiences featured on this page, learn more.
*Likely to sell out: Based on Viator’s booking data and information from the provider from the past 30 days, it seems likely this experience will sell out through Viator, a Tripadvisor company.
Is this your Tripadvisor listing?
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
Claim your listing