Northwest Cascades is in the North Cascades region of Washington.
Artist Point on Mount Baker, a stiff hike to 5140', with a grand view at the top. Mt Baker Vista at the end of Glacier Creek Road (Forest Road 39)
This subregion consists of Whatcom County and Skagit County
Bellingham International Airport (IATA: BLI) is the primary airport serving the region. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (IATA: SEA), while located a way to the south of Seattle, is the closest national-grade airport in the USA. Vancouver International Airport (IATA: YVR), while across the border in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada, is sometimes convenient.
Amtrak Cascades stops at Mount Vernon and Bellingham on its way north to Vancouver and south to Seattle
To cross this international border, you need an international travel document: a passport, a NEXUS card (see below), a US Passport Card, or certain US and Canadian "Enhanced ID" Drivers Licences. Most of these cards have Radio-Frequency ID (RFID) chips, which detectors can read when you wave the card in front of them. Some US-bound lanes are marked "Ready Lane" or "RFID". In these lanes you may use either a NEXUS card or another kind of RFID card. In the table below, some of the NEXUS hours actually NEXUS and Ready Lane hours.
There are five land border crossing points, between the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada and the Northwest Cascades region of Washington state, USA. They are referred to by different terms in Canada and the US.
| Hours NEXUS open, entering: | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! Canadian name | US name | Location | Hours open | !Canada | !US | Comments |
| Surrey (Douglas / Peace Arch) | Blaine (Peace Arch) | Surrey/White Rock, BC (Highway 99) – Blaine, WA (Interstate 5) | Daily 24 hours | Daily 7AM–midnight | Daily 6AM–midnight | Primary border crossing point for passenger vehicles. No commercial traffic allowed. Best NEXUS lane access. Canadian and US Customs offices here are good places to ask questions. |
| Pacific Highway | Blaine (Pacific Highway) | Surrey, BC (Highway 15) – Blaine, WA (WA-543) (From Hwy 99 southbound take exit 2A and go along 8 Ave for 1.5 km to Hwy 15. From I-5 northbound take exit 275 for WA-543.) | Daily 24 hours | Daily 7AM–midnight | Daily 6AM–9PM | Also known as "Truck Crossing". Primary border crossing point for trucks and buses. Passenger and foot traffic also welcome, with waits usually shorter than at Peace Arch. Canadian and US Customs offices here are good places to ask questions. |
| Aldergrove | Lynden | Aldergrove, BC (Highway 13) – Lynden, WA (WA-539, the Guide Meridian) | Daily 8AM–midnight | Daily 10AM–8PM | None | Due north of Bellingham. Often has shorter lines than Peace Arch and Pacific Highway, but also less capacity for line-ups. If you are going to or from Vancouver or the western suburbs the longer drive to Aldergrove usually outweighs the shorter lines. |
| Huntingdon | Sumas | Huntingdon, BC (Highway 11) – Sumas, WA (WA-9) | Daily 24 hours | M–F 8AM–8PM, Sa Su, Hol 8AM–10PM | M–F 8AM–6PM, Sa Su 8AM–5PM | The Canadian side is Abbotsford BC. Less capacity for ine-ups than Peace Arch and Pacific Highway. |
| Boundary Bay | Point Roberts | Delta, BC (56th St) – Point Roberts, WA (Tyee Drive) | Daily 24 hours | Summer daily 7AM–7PM, winter none | Daily 9AM–7PM | This crossing is only useful for reaching Point Roberts, the US tip of a Canadian peninsula which extends just south of the 49° N latitude. There is no land access from there to the rest of the USA. |
Visitors travelling to Vancouver by car across the U.S. border should be aware that there are often lengthy lineups at the border, in either direction. During summer, waits at the border can exceed three hours during peak times.
Inform yourself about the waits, and you can either delay your crossing until the lines subside, or choose the quickest crossing, or at least set your expectations. You can see current wait time forecasts for both directions on the Canada Border Services Agency website , and for US-bound traffic on the US Customs and Border Protection website . Washington State also maintains charts of estimated times towards Canada . It can be helpful to view webcams of the border lineups; Canada-bound and US-bound . Two AM stations give regular updates on border lineups in both directions: News 1130 (1130 on the AM dial) every 10 minutes beginning at one minute past the hour, and AM 730 every 10-15 minutes. Electronic signs near the border on I-5, BC 99, #1 BC-11 and BC 15 give the current wait times at both the Peace Arch and Pacific Highway crossings, allowing you to choose the shorter option.
The NEXUS program lets travellers who fill out an application and pass a security check use express lanes through US-Canada land borders by presenting a NEXUS card. When regular lanes have backups, NEXUS lanes usually have much shorter waits. However, the NEXUS lanes impose many restrictions which regular lanes do not; e.g. everyone in your car must have a NEXUS card.
Head north on Interstate 5 from Seattle. Mount Vernon, Burlington, Bellingham, Blaine and Ferndale are directly on the highway. Other towns are usually a short drive away on local highways: see the individual Get in sections of the towns.
The North Cascades Highway (SR-20) runs from the Okanogan valley area across the Cascades to Burlington and Sedro-Woolley; it is always closed in winter. Two passes across the Cascades further south are usually open all year (except in storms): US-2 over Stevens Pass from Wenatchee and I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass from Ellensburg: when you reach I-5 you will have to turn north to reach this region.
Ferries from Alaska and Victoria, Canada dock at the Bellingham Ferry Terminal. Several towns in the region, including Bellingham, Blaine and Anacortes, have marinas for private boats.