Update to my previous report for the Cascade River Road.
The road is currently open to cars to milepost 21, 1 mile past the Eldorado trailhead. A sedan can make it to mile 18, at the NP entrance. After that it's compact snow and ice with wheel ruts too deep for a sedan. We drove a CX 5 to the Eldo trailhead and ran up the road from there. The gate is open here, and 6 cars were parked at the locked gate at MP 21, just before the steep, paved switchbacks. Went up to MP 22, just above the creeks coming out of Boston Basin. To our complete surprise the culvert is not blocked and is functioning as intended. No road wash-out at all!!!
There are a few places where some smaller rocks got washed onto the road and there's a smaller rotten tree across the road, but other than that no road damage before MP 22.
In general, the Cascade River Road is in excellent condition, especially the gravel section from MP 10 on. No washboard and very few potholes. Please still obey the speed limit to keep it the way.
River crossing for Eldorado: the flooding in December rearranged the river channel and I could not find a way to cross the North Fork Cascade River on logs. Maybe there is one further upstream or downstream from the traditional crossing area, but I didn't go explore.
On a positive, the bathroom at Eldorado trailhead is open and stocked.
Comments