SR903 is a beautiful drive. It’s also the only way out. Plan accordingly — before fire season, not during it.
When people think about what makes a wildfire deadly, they usually picture the flames. But in Upper Kittitas County, Washington, the bigger danger might be the road itself.
State Route 903 is a scenic, two-lane highway that winds through Cle Elum, Roslyn, Ronald, and up to Lake Cle Elum and Salmon La Sac. It’s the only road connecting all of these communities. One lane in. One lane out. And in a wildfire emergency, that single corridor has to do the impossible: move thousands of people out while emergency vehicles try to get in.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Traffic engineers measure road capacity in vehicles per hour per lane. At 25 mph on a two-lane road like SR-903, realistic capacity in a real-world small-town environment runs about 200–350 vehicles per hour outbound — once you account for intersections, RVs, panicked drivers, and the inevitable breakdown or fender-bender that clogs everything.
On a busy summer weekend, an estimated 10,000 people could be in the Roslyn, Ronald, Lake Cle Elum, and Salmon La Sac area — between residents, Suncadia guests, cabin owners, campers, and hikers. Assuming two people per vehicle, that’s roughly 5,000 vehicles that need to get out.
At 350 vehicles per hour: over 14 hours to clear.
Meanwhile, wildfires in dry Eastern Washington conditions can move at 1–6 miles per hour in grassland — and much faster with wind. The corridor from Roslyn to Cle Elum is about 5 miles. A fast-moving fire with wind could cut that road off in under an hour.
The math is not on our side.
Sound Familiar? It Should.
In November 2018, the Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise, California. It killed 85 people — most of them in their cars, trying to escape on roads that were never designed to handle a mass evacuation. The fire moved faster than the traffic could.
Local emergency officials have made the comparison explicitly. A former fire management officer for the Cle Elum Ranger District said of the SR-903 corridor: “It’s staring you in the face. Oh boy, I see similarities here.”
Kittitas County’s own emergency management coordinator has said bluntly: “We are in a fire-prone area. We have dodged a lot of bullets, but luck is not a plan.”
And Roslyn is not a low-risk area. The Roslyn Fire Department reports that Roslyn ranks in the 100th percentile of wildfire risk in Washington State — and 99th percentile nationally. The 2017 Jolly Mountain Fire burned 36,000 acres in the Cle Elum Ranger District and triggered the first full-scale law enforcement evacuation callout in Kittitas County history. Residents of Roslyn and Ronald were placed under Level 2 evacuation notices. Lake Cle Elum was under Level 3 — leave now.
The One Choke Point Problem
SR-903 is ranked #1 on Kittitas County’s list of evacuation routes most in need of strengthening. The county has received a $10 million federal grant to thin forests and clear brush along the corridor, and over 1,500 acres of fuel reduction treatments have already been completed near Roslyn and Cle Elum Ridge. That work matters.
But no amount of brush clearing changes the fundamental geometry: it’s still one lane out.
As one Kittitas County emergency official put it: “All you need is one jack-knifed trailer and it screws up everything.”
One accident. One tree down. One panicked driver who stops in the middle of the road. And 5,000 vehicles — with a wildfire closing in — go nowhere.
Contamination cleanup on the Number 4 Mine site will route haul trucks and equipment through SR-903
What Residents Can Do Right Now
The road capacity problem requires a policy solution — wider roads, alternate routes, and development limits tied to evacuation capacity. That is a decision for elected officials and planners. What individuals can control is preparation time.
The single most important action: leave early. Do not wait for a Level 3 order. Residents who leave at Level 1 or Level 2 get out before the road saturates. Residents who wait for Level 3 — or who wait to see smoke — may find the road already at a standstill.
- Consider the DNR’s free Wildfire Ready Neighbors program at wildfireready.dnr.wa.gov for a free home fire risk assessment.
- Know the evacuation levels. Level 1 = Be Ready. Level 2 = Be Set — leave immediately if you have animals, mobility limitations, or are far up the corridor. Level 3 = Leave NOW — do not stop for belongings.
- Sign up for Kittitas County emergency alerts at www.co.kittitas.wa.us to receive Level 2 and Level 3 notifications by text or email. Do not rely on seeing smoke or hearing sirens.
- Keep a go-bag packed during fire season (June through September): food, water, medications, documents, phone chargers, and anything for pets or animals.
- Have your evacuation route memorized before you need it. Know which direction you are going and where you are meeting family members who may be at different locations.
The Bottom Line
Paradise, CA wasn’t destroyed because people didn’t care. It was destroyed because the road couldn’t move people fast enough when it mattered most. Upper Kittitas County has the history, the terrain, the fire risk, and the road geometry to face the same scenario.
