What are the most beautiful Cascade mountain towns? (Seattle, North Bend: houses, employment)

[Mounty]

Something like Twin Peaks, with hills, lots of majestic trees, in or surrounded by enormous mountains, lakes and rivers? And with a nice feel to the town itself, which means neat downtown, nice houses, little or no poverty etc.

[pw72]

Leavenworth, North Bend, Skykomish. However, very little substantial employment in these areas, except for min. wage.

[balwan]

Originally Posted by Mounty

Something like Twin Peaks, with hills, lots of majestic trees, in or surrounded by enormous mountains, lakes and rivers? And with a nice feel to the town itself, which means neat downtown, nice houses, little or no poverty etc.

Hilarious, Twin Peaks and 'no poverty'??? - Uhhh, this is Washington, not Hollywood. Where are you coming from?

[LordBalfor]

Well, Snoqualmie IS where most of the Twin Peaks shots were filmed. Starting to be folded into the suburbs of Seattle now as development works it's way up the I-90 corridor towards Snoqualmie Pass.

Leavenworth is probably my favorite mountain town in the state - though it IS touristy (made up like a Bavarian village). Generally looks fairly prosperous. On the dryer side of the Cascades though (still trees).

In general, small towns in the West tend not to be as charming as those back East. The small towns I like out here the best are the company towns built for the workers during the dam construction era of the Depression. Coolee Dam in Eastern Washington is a pretty little town (neat, clean, nicely laid out, cute cottages etc). It's not in the mountains though.

Ken