Winthrop

In 1891 a Harvard-educated adventurer named Guy Waring arrived in the remote Methow Valley, saw opportunity among the scattered miners and ranchers, and opened the area's first general store. He built a home, a trading post, and the beginnings of a town, giving it the name Winthrop. Waring was a man of the frontier and of the East at once, and his story links this dusty valley to some surprising places.

One of Waring's Harvard connections was the writer Owen Wister, who spent time in this country. Wister went on to write The Virginian, the novel that largely invented the modern Western, and the Methow Valley is often cited among the landscapes that shaped it. The town that grew up around Waring's store carried that frontier spirit into the twentieth century, through timber, mining, and ranching, before reinventing itself for a new age.

Just above the main street stands the Shafer Historical Museum, and it is the key to understanding Winthrop. At its heart is Guy Waring's own log home from 1897, a stout building locals call the Castle, surrounded by original pioneer-era structures gathered from around the valley, cabins, a schoolhouse, a print shop, and displays of mining, logging, and farming gear.

The museum came to be in the 1940s, when a local merchant named Simon Shafer bought Waring's old home and preserved it, and it grew from there into the open-air collection you can walk today. It is the difference between a themed street and a historic town: the false fronts downtown are modeled on exactly this, the genuine article, still standing a block away.

Winthrop is the hub of a valley beloved by anyone who moves under their own power. In summer the surrounding mountains and rivers offer hiking, mountain biking, fishing, and rafting, and the dry, sunny climate makes it a welcome contrast to the wet west side of the Cascades. Wildflowers carpet the hillsides in spring, and larches turn the high country gold in fall.

Winter is when the valley truly comes into its own. The Methow supports one of the largest networks of groomed cross-country ski trails in the country, lacing the valley floor and hills for miles, and Winthrop becomes a Nordic town, its boardwalks dusted with snow. Whatever the season, the town sits at the trailhead.

Winthrop's setting is as much a draw as its main street. The town sits at the sunny eastern end of the North Cascades Highway, State Route 20, which climbs west from the valley over Washington Pass and Rainy Pass into some of the most rugged mountain country in the Lower 48. In the warmer months, the drive over the passes from Winthrop is one of the great scenic routes in the state.

That gateway role shapes the rhythm of the town. In summer and fall, travelers pour through on their way to or from the high country, and Winthrop is the place to fuel up, eat, and sleep before or after the mountains. In winter, when snow closes the passes, the town turns inward and becomes a quiet Nordic hub, its boardwalks lined with skiers instead of mountain bikers.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.