Washington State Route 524

On Saturday, June 29, 2019, we drove the length of Washington State Route 524, because it was my birthday and I said so.

RCW 47.17.730
State route No. 524:

A state highway to be known as state route number 524 is established as follows:

Beginning at a junction with state route number 104 at Edmonds, thence northeasterly to a junction with state route number 5 in the vicinity of Lynnwood, thence easterly to a junction with state route number 522 near Maltby.

With the Edmonds ferry dock at our back, just after crossing the busy railroad tracks, Highway 524 begins at this intersection. We're on SR 104, which turns right, but we're going to go straight ahead.


Downtown Edmonds is quicker to walk than drive through, but we're here for the highway. Two blocks into the route, we turn northward and zig-zag through quiet residential streets. We head up the hill in a little canyon of Maplewood Park, but slowly since we're behind a U-Haul truck. Once on top, we roll due east. Welcome to Lynnwood! Edmonds Community College! Lynnwood Crossroads! In the vast sea of asphalt, we arrive at the junction with SR 99. This is the old heart of Lynnwood.


We pass the forest of Scriber Creek, to which we once rode our bikes, then we enter the new heart of Lynnwood, a.k.a. Alderwood. It is here we find I-5.


As we enter the area once and sometimes known as Alderwood Manor, our straight street turns into curvy Filbert Road, winding down the hill to Swamp Creek. Alderwood Manor is full of curvy tree-named roads: Poplar, Cypress, Locust, Magnolia, Larch, and those are just the ones we passed. High above us is I-405, but there's no junction with it. Up and over a hill, we enter Bothell (Highway 524 is the northern city limit). We cross North Creek and, at Thrashers Corner, Highway 524 has a junction with SR 527.


Highway 524 abruptly loses most of its traffic. We curve up the next hill, leave the city of Bothell, cross Little Bear Creek (the Woodinville Bear Creek, not the Redmond Bear Creek), and arrive at a junction with SR 9. Where are we? Bothell? Woodinville? Maltby? North Creek? Clearview? The map says Turner Corner, for what it's worth. Do you want to see the Brightwater Treatment Plant? Then take SR 9 south.


Just over a mile later, prepare for sudden left turns. Welcome to the unincorporated community of Maltby, once a whistlestop on the old Northern Pacific railroad. We cross the tracks, take a sharp right onto Yew Way, then a left onto Paradise Lake Road, whereupon we are at the junction with SR 522. Highway 524 is at an end. WSDOT is working on the design to replace this stoplight with an interchange (since it's the last stoplight on 522 between 405 and Monroe), but there's no funding for construction yet.

Highway 524 starts with zig-zags and ends with zig-zags, with plenty of straight stretches and curvy stretches in between. A journey across southwest Snohomish County: forest, sea and suburbia.