Washington State Route 302

On Saturday, June 21, 2014, we drove Washington State Route 302 across peninsulas and bridges, over hills and along bays.

RCW 47.17.545
State route No. 302:

A state highway to be known as state route number 302 is established as follows:

Beginning at a junction with state route number 3 in the vicinity of Allyn, thence easterly to a junction with state route number 16 in the vicinity of Purdy.

At the throat of the Kitsap Peninsula in north Mason County, Highway 302 begins at this intersection with busy SR 3.


The highway quickly dives down a hill, with a view of Mt. Rainier across the clearcut, all the way to sea level at North Bay of Case Inlet of Puget Sound. We then are treated to continuous views of the bay as we head south through the community of Victor, miles and miles of Victor. About the time Highway 302 turns east, it enters Pierce County and starts climbing up the hill of Key Peninsula. Curvy road every which way, wherever the topography dictates. At one point, when we were facing northward, I decided it was the halfway point, so I had Chunlin take a photo.


Highway 302 promptly turned east again and continued across the peninsula. At the Key Peninsula Highway, we had to take a left turn to continue the state route. The road was quite busy for a winding two-lane highway, or at least it sure felt like it after all our recent drives in eastern Washington! Tra-la-la and we're suddenly dropping down the hill to Wauna and Puget Sound again. The highway heads along the Purdy Sand Spit separating Henderson Bay from Burley Lagoon. Then we head over a purdy bridge to Purdy and the old Highway 16. Both directions from this intersection, north and south, are part of Highway 302, but the directional signs act as if it's 16. We turned south and sped along to this onramp junction with SR 16.

The northward branch is signed as a spur of SR 302, and the official code only mentions one junction and no spur, so that's all the photos we took. I did turn around and drive the spur anyway, just for completeness, however.

Other than the straight stretch of old 16 at Purdy, Highway 302 is a nice rollercoaster of a drive, scenic. Oh, to have a house on the water...