Traveling for Thanksgiving? Plan to go early or go late

“Go early or go late” should be your mantra while planning Thanksgiving travel.

I-5 in the South Sound is expected to be bad almost all day on Wednesday. If you don’t leave before 9 a.m., you are going to be in bumper to bumper traffic. If you miss the 9 a.m. window, it’s better to wait until about 8 p.m.
Southbound I-5 between Tacoma and Olympia gets it the worst.

“You’re dealing with a lot of regional traffic passing through and also some of that local traffic just hangs around,” said Travis Phelps with the Washington State Department of Transportation.

The I-5 drive will be tough on Thanksgiving, too, especially from 10 a.m. to noon.

Coming home, your guide should be the same: “go early or go late.” The middle of the day will be bad, especially northbound I-5 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The next worst drive is
I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass. It will be bad from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, heading east. Coming home on Sunday, expect bad traffic in both directions around midday. There tend to be long backups westbound from Cle Elum.

Make sure you’re prepared to get stuck. Have your car checked out ahead of time, fill up your gas tank, and bring extra blankets and other supplies, “in case (you’re) stuck behind some avalanche control in the passes,” Phelps said. “These are things people don’t think about. They’re often times caught surprised by it.”

Highway 2 over Stevens Pass can be a good alternate, but it doesn’t have the capacity to handle a lot of traffic and getting back on Sunday will be busy on Highway 2, regardless.

Another drive that you might not expect to be bad on Wednesday and Sunday is the drive north or south between Skagit County and the Canadian Border. It will be heavier than normal each of the five days.

Don’t forget about Friday on southbound I-5, either. A lot of Canadian shoppers head south for Black Friday.