Stevens Pass

Stevens Pass is a mountain pass through the Cascade Mountains.  It is located on the border of King and Chelan Counties.  US Hwy 2 runs over the pass that reaches a maximum elevation of 4061 ft.  It was named after John Frank Stevens, an American engineer who built the Great Northern Railroad.  In 1890 he was out surveying for the Railroad and found this pass.  It looked like no one used the  pass because there were no trails or evidence of anyone being there.  He felt is was a good area for the Railroad to come through and it was built. 
There have been avalanches and two of them have been notable.  The first one happened in 1910 when one came down on the tracks that stalled two trains.  One was the Seattle Express, a passenger train and the other train was the Fast Mail train.  While waiting out the snow removal another avalanche hit six days later killing 96 people (35 passengers and 61 railroad workers).  The second avalanche happened just last February (2012) when three of four professional skiers died when an avalanche hit them.  The survivor was wearing the Avalanche Airbag backpack that pushed her head out of the snow.  It was on the news; you might remember it.
As we drove over Stevens Pass we were in awe of the scenery; it was beautiful.  The Cascades are amazing and there was still snow on some of the peaks.  It was hard to image any avalanches even after seeing the area where the February 2012 one happened.  I am glad we had the chance to drive over Stevens Pass and through the Cascades.   We will be seeing more of the Cascades next week end when we visit Cascades National Park.