washington pass parking

not being familiar with spring in the Washington Pass area, but having heard about the lack of parking, I was wondering if I could get some information. Is Blue Lake the only parking area? What other areas have parking? Cutthroat? Rainy Pass?

Cutthroat and Rainy both usually have a decent plowed pullout. There's also usually a few spaces at the hairpin.

Just past the Blue Lake turn out on the left is the big overlook parking lot. That is the view point for Liberty Bell and the Early Winters Spires - it is right before the road turns south toward the hairpin turn. It is not even a mile away.

There is a decent sized pullout at the base of Cutthroat Peak. Probably space for ~10-20 cars.

Passing along an excerpt from a WSDOT report shared by a friend who receives the local updates for WA Pass for anyone heading that direction over the coming days as things warm up:

"For those of you who are planning a trip this weekend - I'm giving you a heads-up.  The forecast is calling for temperatures to reach the 80's and perhaps even the 90's from Thursday through Sunday.  If that happens quickly, it could make every avalanche chute above the highway unstable and the worst case scenario would be having to close the highway.  Our avalanche crew is concerned and will be staying in Winthrop all week making daily assessments.  If it were just a couple of chutes in the right places, they could do avalanche control using the recoiless rifle they can mount on the snow cat trailer, but with the potential of 20 or more unstable chutes, many of which don't have "starting zones" that can be "shot" from anyplace they can get the snow cat - means closure could become the only option - Stay Tuned!"
Jeff

Thanks for the info, I was just wondering about that...

Not having been up there yet this season, can anyone comment on how the the higher and more eastern snowpack compares to the two story slush pile further west? Have things been able to consolidate there any better? I had a trip to Eldorado planned for next week and it's sounding like snow and weather conditions are conspiring against me, was wondering if something further east would be a better option after this little heat wave passes.