Cascade Passes & Mount Rainier: Live Road Cameras

Getting to the high country in Washington means crossing the Cascade crest, and the crest does not care about your schedule. A pass can be dry at 7 a.m. and chained-up by noon; a national-park road that was open all summer can be gated shut by the first October storm. Before you point the car at Snoqualmie, Stevens, White Pass, or Mount Rainier, the smartest first move is to look at the road itself. The live Washington WSDOT camera map pulls together more than 1,500 state traffic cameras so you can see snow, fog, backups, and bare pavement at a glance instead of guessing.

This guide is about the destinations the passes actually reach — the three year-round Cascade crossings and Mount Rainier National Park — and which cameras tell you whether the door is open.

The three year-round Cascade crossings

Washington keeps three east–west highways over the Cascades plowed through winter. They climb to very different elevations, and that difference is the whole story when a storm rolls in.

• Snoqualmie Pass (I-90) — 3,015 ft. The lowest and by far the busiest crossing, and the default route between Seattle and the east side. Because it sits lowest, it stays open most reliably, but the traffic volume means a single spinout can stack miles of brake lights. Check the summit camera plus the chain-up areas on the westbound climb from North Bend and the eastbound climb from Easton.
• Stevens Pass (US-2) — 4,061 ft. The scenic northern crossing toward Leavenworth and Wenatchee. It runs higher than Snoqualmie, gets hit harder, and closes for avalanche control more often in deep winter. A clear summit shot is worth confirming before you commit, because the detour back to I-90 is long.
• White Pass (US-12) — 4,500 ft. The southern crossing, past the White Pass ski area toward Yakima. It stays open most winters but shuts for avalanche work and heavy snow, and it sees far less traffic, so conditions can be rougher between plow passes.

A reliable habit on all three: open the pass cameras, then tap the nearby weather to read the temperature. A surface that merely looks wet but sits at 31°F is almost certainly iced over.

Mount Rainier: which roads close, which stay open

Mount Rainier is the destination most people get wrong in the planning stage, because "the park is open year-round" and "you can drive to where you want to go" are two very different things. The park is split into roads that close for the season and roads that stay open with restrictions.

SR-410 (Chinook Pass) and SR-123 (Cayuse Pass) — closed in winter

These are the high, scenic park-edge highways, and they shut down every winter for snow and avalanche danger:

• Chinook Pass (SR-410) — 5,430 ft. One of the highest paved passes in the state. It typically closes in October or November and reopens in late spring once crews clear the snow; in 2026 it reopened on May 22. Some years a heavy early storm closes it sooner.
• Cayuse Pass (SR-123) — about 4,675 ft. Closes on the same schedule as Chinook, since the two passes connect on the park's east and south sides.

If you are planning a fall or spring loop around the mountain on SR-410 and SR-123, treat the season as roughly late spring through mid-fall and confirm the gates before you drive. In winter, the only way to reach the park's east side is the long way around via I-90 or US-12.

SR-706 to Nisqually, Longmire, and Paradise — open, but gated to Paradise

The southwest corner is the part of Rainier that stays reachable in winter:

• The Nisqually Entrance (reached by SR-706 through Ashford) is the only park entrance open every day of the year.
• The road from the entrance up to Longmire stays open through winter except in extreme weather.
• The stretch from Longmire up to Paradise is the catch. In winter it opens only when conditions allow — often late morning to mid-afternoon, and sometimes not at all. When it does open, all vehicles must carry tire chains, and there are gate-down and gate-up cutoff times. Paradise is where the park's winter snow play (sledding and tubing) lives, so this is the road most winter visitors actually care about.

The takeaway: in winter you can almost always reach Longmire, but getting to Paradise depends entirely on the day. Check the SR-706 and SR-7 approach cameras on the Washington camera map to judge the drive up from the lowlands, then confirm the Longmire-to-Paradise gate status with the National Park Service before you start climbing.

North Cascades and the Olympics

Two more destinations are worth a quick mention because their access flips with the seasons:

• North Cascades Highway (SR-20). The spectacular crossing over Rainy Pass (about 4,855 ft) and Washington Pass (5,477 ft) is closed every winter — it crosses dozens of avalanche paths that can't be controlled the way Snoqualmie and Stevens are. It usually closes in late November or December (Dec. 4 in 2025) and reopens in spring. There is no winter through-route here; plan SR-20 as a late-spring-through-fall drive.
• Olympic National Park (US-101). US-101 loops the peninsula year-round, but the climb to Hurricane Ridge above Port Angeles is winter-restricted — typically plowed and open only Friday through Sunday in season, with chains required and daytime-only uphill access. Use the US-101 corridor cameras to read the approach.

How to use the map for a pass or park run

The WSDOT camera map is built to get you to the right feed fast:

• Area chips jump straight to Snoqualmie Pass or Stevens Pass without scrolling the whole state, plus regions like Tacoma / Olympia for the run toward Rainier's southwest side.
• Search finds cameras by route number (try "410," "12," or "2") or town name (Enumclaw, Ashford, Leavenworth).
• Favorites let you pin the exact feeds you check most — the Snoqualmie summit, the Stevens chain-up area, and the SR-706 approach to Rainier — so they load in one tap the next storm.
• Nearby weather pairs any camera with current temperature and precipitation, the quickest ice check there is.

For trips that cross state lines, the same routine works on the all-states road camera map, and if you're continuing south the Oregon ODOT cameras cover the Cascade passes and the Columbia Gorge on that side of the river.

A note on accuracy

These images come from WSDOT's Traveler Information system, but this is an independent, non-commercial travel helper. Cameras show recent stills, not live video, and they can lag or go dark in the exact storm you most want to see through. Seasonal gates on Chinook, Cayuse, SR-20, and the road to Paradise are set by WSDOT and the National Park Service — always confirm closures, opening dates, and chain requirements with official sources before you rely on a clear-looking frame. Check the camera, check the weather, then decide.