Connecting Granite Falls with Darrington, the Mountain Loop Highway is one of Washington State's most scenic drives. Rather than a single highway, the loop is completed using a series of roads (State Routes 9, 92, 530, and Forest Road 20) that pass through the city of Arlington and a handful of other small communities along the way, most of which are former mining towns.

Although the majority of the loop is paved, the really good part is not. As you travel east from Granite Falls, the road follows the south fork of the Stilliguamish River. Although tame in the Summer, in Spring the riverbed swells with whitewater rapids from snow melt. Along the way, the highway passes through the historic mining town of Silverton, then on past Big Four Mountain - the site of the former Big Four Mountain Lodge - a posh destination for 1920's wealthy elite. Now a park, visitors can catch the trailhead for the Big Four Ice Caves from the parking lot.

A few miles down the road at Barlow Pass, the pavement ends for a stretch of thirteen miles. A long thirteen miles. Once over the pass, the route descends into Darrington along the Sauk River. During the winter months the road is closed between Silverton and Darrington, but there are lots of forest service roads for tooling around on in your four-wheel drive vehicle. Driver beware.

Darrington, an old logging town settled by South Carolinians, is most famous today for its bluegrass festival and proximity to the town of Oso, the site of a 2014 mudslide that all but wiped out an entire community. In the spirit of the Pacific Northwest, Oso is recovering from the disaster which inspired the motto "Oso strong." From Oso, the highway continues west to Arlington, where (depending on your starting point) the loop is complete.



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