Highway 2: Sultan Bakery, Cascade Forest & Lake Twenty-Two

Highway 2 climbs east from Everett through the Cascade foothills before cresting Stevens Pass at 4,061 feet — one of the more scenic drives in Washington, passing through small towns that grew up as rail service stops in the 1890s. The Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest flanks the corridor, with trailheads off nearly every mile marker. Sultan sits 50 miles from Seattle at the foot of the pass climb; the Mountain Loop Highway cuts north from there toward Granite Falls and the old-growth zones of the Snoqualmie NF, where Lake Twenty-Two sits in a Research Natural Area at 2,436 feet.