The Snoqualmie Valley, where Carnation sits, is a quiet pocket of dairy farms and berry fields in the western foothills of the Cascades, a short way east of Seattle's suburbs. It is a place where cows graze in sight of snow-capped peaks, with the Tolt and Snoqualmie rivers winding through the flats and the dark ridge of the mountains behind. The village of Carnation takes its name from the Carnation Milk company, which once ran a famous model dairy farm here. Lake Marcel-Stillwater, nearby, is a scattering of houses on the forested slope.
To the south, Snoqualmie Falls drops about 82 metres over a lip of rock into a misty pool, and has been a sacred place for the Snoqualmie people for countless generations. The town of Snoqualmie nearby is better known to some as the setting for the television series Twin Peaks, and diner fans will find the cafe made famous in the show. The valley's light, in early morning mist, is particularly beautiful.
The Olympic Peninsula and Hood Canal, the first part of the ride, lie across Puget Sound to the west, and they are some of the greatest riding in the Pacific Northwest. Hood Canal is not a canal at all but a natural fjord, a long, narrow arm of the sound with steep forested shores and oysters in the shallows, and the highway along it passes through small towns with names like Brinnon and Quilcene. Further inland, the Olympic mountains rise to glaciated peaks, with the road to Hurricane Ridge climbing about 1,600 metres to wide meadows and views that sweep across the range.
By contrast, the Snoqualmie Valley is for gentle winding and quiet. Roads are narrow, lined with fir and maple, and the surface is generally good. Rain is common from autumn to spring, and fog fills the river bottoms in the morning. Farm stands sell fruit and vegetables in summer, and there are good stops for coffee in Duvall and Fall City.
Fuel in Carnation itself is limited, so use the larger stations in Duvall, Fall City or Redmond. Weekend traffic can be busy near the falls, and elk, which have become common in the valley, sometimes wander onto the road, so be careful at dawn and dusk.