Roslyn, Washington, aka Cicely, Alaska: Home of Northern Exposure

We’re starting with Roslyn, Washington, for two reasons.

First, it’s the town where Northern Exposure — my favorite television series ever — was filmed (check out Moose Chick’s excellent fan site here).

Second, it’s a chill little mountain town smack dab in the middle of the Snoqualmie Pass, which is one of the prettiest drives in the state of Washington. In my opinion, only the White Pass drive can compete with it.

The town shown in Northern Exposure as Cicely, Alaska, is actually Roslyn, Washington. The town hasn’t changed much at all, which is good for visiting because you can see every show-related site in just a couple hours.

It’s been about two months since I was there (August 2017), but as of that time, Dr. Fleishman’s name was still stenciled on the window of his “office,” and a sign still identified Chris in the Morning’s K-BEAR radio room.

The Brick is actually called the Brick, and would be a great bar/restaurant even if it wasn’t associated with the show. The place, built of brick and wood with an enormous bar and full-sized spittoon, is enormous inside and feels like something from the Old West. The whole town feels that way, really. The people of Roslyn are almost universally friendly and easy to talk to, and I’ve had a great experience every time I’ve visited there.

The famous camel mural on the side of Roslyn’s Cafe is also still present. The iconic image in the show was called “Roslyn’s Cafe” because the real cafe was named for the town: ROSLYN (singular) Cafe. Show producers had to cover up for the fact that the town’s name wasn’t actually Cicely, so they added the apostrophe to turn the “Rosyln” into “Rosyln’s.”

Roslyn is a relaxed, quirky town with more than its share of quirky characters…not too unlike our beloved fantasy town of Cicely, Alaska.

You can hit Roslyn and North Bend (discussed below) on the same day without any rush. They are less than an hour of gorgeous driving from each other.

Roslyn was also shown in the 1977 film Joyride and the 2014 film Man in the High Castle.