Relocated to Seattle area, where are the twisties?

[Blackfoot]

to be more specific, i'm in renton, se of seattle. so local guys, where can i drive without getting traffic (no urban planning, it's all over, almost all day) or 35 mph limits? closer to where i am is better, but i've asked people up here and nobody seems to know. guess was asking the wrong crowd.

help!

[Thomas Spitzer]

Around Gig Harbor is always good for me. Or head towards Mt. Rainier...


'88 944 N/A

[hoff944]

Gotta love Boeing field. Go take a tour of the Everett plant if you haven't already. Seattle is a beautiful city. There has to be some great roads in the Tacoma area.

[macreel]

I just crawled out from under my p.car, after re-torquing CV bolts
and I find your posting. Welcome to Renton/Puget Sound. I'm on
the north side of Renton.

I hope you're a member of PCA, PacN'WestRegion. Lots going on;
check the PCA website.

Twisties are here.

macreel

[Dantilla]

If you go to Gig Harbor, do NOT speed inside city limits. Out in the county,.....

Mt. Rainier is a great drive. The twisties next to Alder Lake are a hoot! In the P-car, people ahead will usually step aside for you to pass.

My all time favorite drive is Hiway 410 over Chinook Pass. It is open now, but will still have steep snow banks on the sides of the road. Great drive, the greatest views, and the most dramatic change between the West side and East side of the state.

You will find the best roads on the Olympic peninsula if you go on a tour with the local Porsche club. There are some roads throuth the woods that I never knew existed.

In the mean time, have fun sitting in Renton traffic.

[kenny]

Take a drive over and up along Hood Cannal. It is pretty, has a view of the water, and if you leave early you can do some clamming. You can also get oysters in the months with R's in them.
Clamming tip of the day -- and this is top secret -- don't bother digging to close to the low tide line -- everybody digs down low. Dig up a little higher than most. Don't dig over the limit: they will spank you in a very non-sexual sort of way!!

P.S. the winter months are so depressing you may have to find a color for your wheels other than black!!

[Blackfoot]

thanks for the replies, keep em coming!

ya, this traffic up here is far worse than the bay area. the sad thing is there aren't as many cars here, it's just that where a highway should have 4 lanes, it has two. a busy street that should be two-laned has only one. i think they should figure who the people were that were urban planners in the 80's & 90's and get then to pay back their salaries. they certainly didn't do any urban planning to speak of.

[cruzermusic]

hey blackfoot.. relocate from where????


cruzer

[Blackfoot]

south bay, san jose.

[kenny]

yeah the problem is too many people from CA moving to WA! :-) just kiddin' Seattle, like LA would have been a great place to live 40 years ago -- it's just too crouded now. Plus the problem in Seattle is that there are no roads going east/west to speak of. There are a lot of good drives to the east of you Clellum (sp), Wenachee, Winthrop. Start by going up and over Stevens pass -- wait till the snow is gone! -- I think it's 20 that cuts across the northern part of the state east to west -- it got voted one of the ten best drives in the country one time -- heavily forested and windy roads. Late fall may be best after the tourists start to wind down.

Then to the far-east, just past Spokane, you can take the Saint Joe River road (look for the river on the map) that goes to St. Maries ID. I swear to you it is like driving inside a calender -- it will freak your brain out!

If you really want to test the limits (thermal) of you P-car , take I-90 to Spokane and drive through the dessert to my home town of Moses Lake. You can fish, hunt, ski -- but bring plenty of sun screen because it can easily get over 105F.

[Steve Lavigne]

I just moved from Seattle to San Francisco about a month ago. So far, I have barely scratched the surface and have had some very enjoyable drives. Both Socal and Norcal have some awesome twisties that aren't too far from the cities.

As for near Renton, there are a few decent areas. If you head up to Snoqualmie Falls and turn away from the falls (east I think) at the Salish lodge parking lot, there is a great virtually empty road which goes all the way to North Bend with nearly zero cars, especially at night. I just looked at mapquest and it looks like the road isn't really on the map.

Another fun road is the Issaquah-Fall City road. Unfortunately, most of the road is somewhat residential, so it is not a very good place to have fun. There are lots of roads with a mile or so of twisties leading up to a residential area, but it is hard to justify driving there for that short amount of fun.

There are probably some similar roads closer to the Renton area.

If you get out to the Peninsula north of Aberdeen, there are some good roads. Unfortunately, there are some roads which are not paved, which can be a pain. Also, the North Cascade Highway is fun, but it is fairly busy and heavily patrolled during the summertime.

Unfortunately, there are very few super twisty roads, so if you are really on it in a 951, you will see triple digit speeds fairly frequently. I've been really enjoying the twistier Norcal roads which let me drive aggressively without going way too fast.

[Steve Lavigne]

Originally posted by Blackfoot
closer to where i am is better, but i've asked people up here and nobody seems to know. guess was asking the wrong crowd.

I think the crowd you are looking for already moved away. Either that, or they bought Subarus and are playing off road.

[macreel]

Blackfoot (Renton)... TWISTIES: Near Renton, E. of SR 169, back-
roads in areas of Veazie, Kanaskat, Ravensdale, Hobart ,Issa-
quah; SR = state route;
east of Enumclaw on 410;
backroads off SR203, north & east of axis Snoqualmie-Carnation-
Duvall;
roads between SR 18 & 169, especially Tiger Mt. Rd and Jones Rd.

N. of Seattle...SR 11, Chuckanut Dr, from Burlington to Bellingham;
Mt. Loop Highway, Granite Falls to Darrington (half of it is dirt rd,
through forest; it's more a rally route); SR 9, Burlington to Border.

E. of Seattle...loop I90 to CleElum, over Blewett Pass to Leavenworth and back to Puget Sound country on US 2;
or from CleElum on US 10 to Ellensburg, then US 97 back to C'Elum, or on to Leavenworth, a Bavarian theme town that would
appreciate a German car.

Farther East...(already mentioned above)SR20, but it goes across the state, to Newport, on Idaho border; it has nice runs, especially from Winthrop to Omak, and Tonasket to Republic; at
Republic SR 21 goes N and S and is worth a run or 3, in the middle
of it there is a free ferry across the Columbia at Keller and the
road up from the landing is great. USW.

[Blackfoot]

wow macreel, that's what i'm talking about! i'll try them soon, thanks much! thanks also steve, will also look into those roads.

[cruzermusic]

shoot down to the nearest east-west interstate,,joyride thru the hills to the eastern side, look at map ,and find the smallest road thats not dirt,unless you like it so,and find yourself a less traveled road.... that takes you home..continue till satisfied...



flat landed it here,,,,\

untill the local fires die....


cruzer

[macreel]

Blackfoot... glad you enjoyed the words. There are lots of WA "twisties", so I hear. I haven't seen all. I especially want to run
the roads NE of Coulee Dam. Maybe on the way back from Parade
(Boise, ID) we'll drive Pendelton, Pasco and catch SR 21, North,
over the ferry, then west from Keller, up and over the hills on either Cache creek rd or Manilla creek/Peter Dan creek rd. Those
are nice routes in a regular car. Reminds me of Marin cty, sort of.

G'luck.

P.S. Spend $15 and get a (120 page) DeLORME Washington
Atlas, available in drugstores, bookstores. It's a great
investment... good detail and usually correct