Saturday, January 17, 2009

Washington State Route 18



On Saturday, January 17, 2009, we drove the length of Highway 18, from Federal Way to Snoqualmie (more or less). It's nice to drive the road I drove as a teenager (sorry, Mom!) and see all the changes WSDOT has made since then.

RCW 47.17.075
State route No. 18
:
A state highway to be known as state route number 18 is established as follows:

Beginning at a junction with state route number 99 in the vicinity of northeast Tacoma, thence northeasterly by way of Auburn to a junction with state route number 90 west of North Bend.

SR 18 @ SR 99
At a busy intersection in Federal Way, Highway 18 begins. SR 99 is the federal highway that the city is named after, you know.

SR 18 @ SR 161
A hundred yards later, Highway 18 has a junction with SR 161. Looks about the same.

SR 18 @ I-5
And another hundred yards or so later, 18 gets going and has a proper junction with I-5.

SR 18 @ SR 167
Down a steep, windy hill, we arrive at the bottom of the Green River/White River valley, aka Auburn. Here we find SR 167, the aptly named Valley Freeway.

SR 18 @ SR 164
A short way across town, the junction with SR 164. Heading to Enumclaw?

SR 18 @ SR 516
Up the Green River, hang a left at Soos Creek, up over a little hill just past Green River Community College (The old stop light is long gone. . .), and we get a glorious view of the junction of Highway 18 and Kent-Kangley Road, aka SR 516. Here we stopped for a brief visit to my parents. Home sweet home.

SR 18 @ I-90
A bit late, we left my parents and continued northeast. The freeway section of Highway 18 ends seven miles short of I-90, but we managed to make it through the fog and over Tiger Mountain in time to get to I-90 just after sunset. Hence the pink sky.

And so old, familiar Highway 18 is at an end.

1 comment:

takoma620 said...

............oh my Lord, there used to be traffic lights!??!!? 0_0

lol I cannot even begin to imagine what 18 was like before "improvements"