For those of us who deal with life north of Puget Sound, the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is on. That means extra volumes of traffic around Mt. Vernon and the surrounding south Skagit County Communities (La Conner and Conway, I feel your pain…).
Here’s some guidance, straight from the experts at WA Department of Transportation, to help minimize the aggravations increased traffic causes.
Tulip Watch 2017 & we’ve got blooms!
We’re about halfway through this year’s Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, and the tulips are finally here. According to the Festival, more tulips are blooming each day! With the weather on tap to be decent this weekend, this might be as good a time as any to head up to Skagit County.
Now that color is popping, expect the roads to be busy:
- Come early, before 10 a.m. on the weekends (especially sunny ones) to avoid backup.
- Consider SR 20 instead of the exit direction into Mount Vernon city streets.
- SR 9 is another northbound alternate into Skagit County.
- Remember these tulip fields are along 2 lane county highways and when you’re out there:
- keep moving
- don’t stop in the road (including parking over the white line)
- obey no parking signs
- don’t block driveways
- be cautious if walking/taking pictures along the road
- Consider stopping at a WSDOT safety rest area to use the restroom before you hit the fields.
