There are many roads in Washington that are _far_ better than 504.

One of these is the North Cascades Highway (WA SR20), a moderately lonely stretch of highway that has been literally blasted out of the rocks.

St. Helens Forest Road 25 on the east side of the volcano, is one of the twistiest roads that you'll find in Washington State. With a short jaunt up to Windy Ridge on FR99, you're looking at 105 miles of constant sweepers and twisties from the gas station at Randle to the gas station at Cougar, including some extremely challenging alpine style hairpin turns.

Speaking of hairpins, the Mt. Baker Highway, WA SR542 is a lovely 50 mile long sweeper with a crown of a dozen or so hairpins that wouldn't look out of place at the top of the Swiss Alps.

WA SR14 along the Columbia River is one of those fine old roads that they don't build anymore. The road goes from cliffs towering over the Columbia River Gorge to small towns along the waters edge, and a constant variety of sharp turns, wide sweepers, and hand-carved two-lane tunnels.

By comparison, 504 is only 50 miles long. It's only wide sweepers, and most of the time that the road is open it's also choked with slow-moving tourist buses hauling up the steep elevation changes. In addition, this road has a very heavily-patrolled 50mph speed limit with much heavy-handed enforcement of the very low speed.

If you consider none of these to be a detriment, I suggest you look at Stevens Canyon Road (aka SR706) that skirts the southern flank of Rainier. This road is absolutely fantastic, with lots of sweepers, twisties, hairpins, tunnels, and elevation changes. It's set about 45mph for a limit due to the number of tourists that clog the road during the summer weekends.

If you're looking for full-on, white-knuckle tight-corner riding, look into the road to Sunrise Amphitheater on the east flank of Rainier. This road takes you from 4000 to 7000 in just a dozen or so miles, with the road climbing the sides and finally top of the ridge with extremely tight radii turns and vistas that stretch away for over 100 miles.

Sincerely,
Adrian Kuepker
http://www.roadsnw.com

"I'm okay, you're okay -- in small doses."
Jonathan Rauch