North Cascades Highway

Discussion about deep snow wheeling, vehicle builds, trip reports, etc
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christensent
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Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2014 6:34 pm
Location: Woodinville, WA

North Cascades Highway

Post by christensent »

As long as you remove your license plates, can you legally drive roads that are "closed to licensed motor vehicles"?
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Nobody
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Re: North Cascades Highway

Post by Nobody »

Sorry for the slow response. Didn't see notification for a new post. I've never heard of anything like that up here :confused: Usually there's plenty of signage stating vehicles must be street legal. Where did you hear this?

This is posted on the Mountain Loop. Please excuse the blurry pic.

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christensent
Posts: 112
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2014 6:34 pm
Location: Woodinville, WA

Re: North Cascades Highway

Post by christensent »

"The North Cascades Highway remains closed for the season to licensed motor vehicles between milepost 134, the Diablo Gate, in the west and milepost 178" - http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/passes/northcascades

"No licensed motor vehicles are allowed beyond the gates, but boots, bikes and snow mobiles are." - http://wsdotblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/p ... north.html


It's a legal gray-area, I'm sure the gate simply says "road closed", and I don't know if it's actually possible to drive around the gates, but it seems to me that if the vehicle doesn't display evidence of being licensed, you could do it. I'm quite confident that if police saw you, they would strongly disagree.

Of course, the Liberty Bell avalanche chutes would be literally impossible to drive over as it would be a 45-degree off-camber situation (although now there is a snow-cat track through them), and have to be aware of spring closures to all traffic as they blast the slopes and clear the roads. But in theory, I don't see why it couldn't be driven otherwise.
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