Trip 04 — from Seattle
Seattle to Leavenworth
Driven and priced September 1, 2026. 120 miles one way, about 2h15 without traffic.
Two hours over a mountain pass to a Bavarian-themed town with genuinely excellent hiking behind it.
Monroe
30
Stevens Pass
78
Leavenworth
120
U.S. 2 east over Stevens Pass. Check the pass before you go.
The money
What this weekend costs
Two people, two nights, Seattle to Leavenworth
- Gas, 240 miles round trip at $4.35 a gallon
- $37
- Lodging, 2 nights, Leavenworth or Peshastin
- $380
- Food, 2 people, 2 days
- $190
- Activities and a Northwest Forest Pass day use
- $40
- Parking
- $20
- Total for two
- $667
Gas is calculated at 28 miles per U.S. gallon and at the regional pump price stated on each trip, observed September 1, 2026. Fuel prices move weekly and vary by more than a dollar a gallon between states, so substitute your own number: the mileage is the part that does not change. Lodging is a mid-range shoulder-season range and excludes state and local lodging taxes, which are added at checkout and vary by city. Observed September 1, 2026.
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The drive
North out of Seattle, east on U.S. 2 through Monroe and Sultan and Gold Bar, then the long climb to Stevens Pass at 4,061 feet and down the Tumwater Canyon into Leavenworth. It is two hours and fifteen minutes of genuinely good road, and the canyon at the end is one of the best twenty miles of driving in the state.
Friday. Two and a quarter hours over Stevens Pass. Leave Seattle at 5:00 PM and you are there by 7:30. Check the pass report between November and April; it closes and it requires traction devices regularly.
Saturday
Icicle Gorge or Colchuck Lake if you are fit and started early, the waterfront park on the Wenatchee River, and downtown in the evening. The town is a theme and it commits.
Sunday, and the leave-by time
Peshastin Pinnacles or the Cashmere fruit stands, then home over the pass by mid-afternoon.
Every trip on this site states a time to leave, and it is the single piece of advice here most worth following. Weekend trips are rarely spoiled at the start. They are spoiled at the end, by one more stop, followed by the metro at the wrong hour, followed by a Monday spent recovering from your weekend.
What to actually do
Colchuck Lake is the famous hike and it is eight miles round trip with 2,300 feet of climbing on a rough trail, plus a permit lottery if you want to continue into the Enchantments. Icicle Gorge is four miles, nearly flat, and a much better use of a Saturday for most people. In town, the waterfront park on the Wenatchee River is free, has real shade and is where locals go when Front Street is full.
Practicalities
Four things decide whether the logistics of this trip work: tolls, fuel, signal and parking. They are set out below rather than buried in the narrative, because they are what you will want at seven o'clock on a Friday evening.
The pass
This is the one real variable on the trip. Between roughly November and April, U.S. 2 over Stevens Pass can require traction tires or chains, and it closes for avalanche control with little warning. Check the Washington State Department of Transportation pass report on the morning you drive, not the week before, and have a plan for going around by Interstate 90 if it is shut.
Gas
Monroe is the last cheap fuel on the west side of the pass. Leavenworth has two stations and charges for the privilege.
Cell service
Good to Gold Bar, then intermittent to absent from the climb through to Tumwater Canyon. Download the map.
Parking
Most Forest Service trailheads in the Icicle Creek drainage require a Northwest Forest Pass, sold as a day pass or an annual, and the annual pays for itself in three visits. Downtown Leavenworth parking is paid and full by mid-morning on a Saturday.
Where to sleep
The ranges below are what a mid-range double room actually costs here outside peak weekends, which is the number the cost sheet uses. Peak weekends in the season noted further down run considerably higher, and in several of these towns the good rooms are gone months in advance. Lodging taxes are added at checkout and vary by city and county.
| Where | What it is | Per night |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown Leavenworth | Hotels and inns in the theme, expensive, walk everywhere | $230–$420 |
| Icicle Road | Lodges along the river, quiet, five minutes out of town | $200–$360 |
| Peshastin or Cashmere | Ten to twenty minutes east, noticeably cheaper, ordinary towns | $130–$220 |
| Eightmile or Johnny Creek | Forest Service campgrounds up Icicle Creek, small and popular | $25–$35 |
When to go
The same weekend in two different months is two different trips, and in several cases two different prices. Here is the honest version of each season, including the ones we would avoid.
May and June
Snowmelt, full rivers, wildflowers on the benches, and the town is still manageable.
Summer
Hot and dry on this side of the mountains, which is the point if you are coming from Seattle. The alpine lakes open up in July.
Late September to October
Larches turn gold in the high country and half the state drives up to see them. Weekends are a scrum; go on a Thursday.
December
The lighting festival fills every bed for fifty miles and backs U.S. 2 up for hours. It is lovely and it is a bad weekend trip.
What we would tell a friend
Leavenworth in December is a genuinely lovely and genuinely overwhelmed place: the Christmas lighting festival fills every bed for fifty miles and the highway backs up. Go in May or late September instead.
Before you go
Check the road, the weather and the opening hours on the morning you leave rather than the week before. Attraction hours, seasonal closures, shuttle schedules, day-use fees and permit requirements all change, often with only a few days' notice, and the operator's own website is the only source worth trusting on the day. If a number on this page disagrees with the number on the official site, the official site is right, and we would like to hear about it at [email protected].
Everything on this page was driven, paid for and timed by us, in the season described. Nothing here was written from a press release, and no part of this trip was hosted, comped or discounted. The full method is on the Editorial Policy page.