Okanogan County, Washington
Excavation in the Methow Valley, WA
The Methow is cobble and boulder country. Twisp, Winthrop, Carlton and Mazama all sit on it, and it’s the reason a trencher is usually the wrong tool up here.
Core sample
What’s under the Methow Valley
- 1Cobble and boulder35 to 70 percent rock fragments
- 2Dense till near CarltonAt 26 to 40 in, footing depth
- 3Glacial fill 200 ft plusUp to 1,000 ft near Mazama
- Frost depth 24 inFootings and water lines go below it
Illustration based on the ground notes for Twisp, Winthrop, Carlton and Mazama. Not to scale and not a soil test.
Working ground in the Methow Valley
What the ground is like
- Valley ground here averages 35 to 70 percent rock fragments, and the river substrate runs about 72 percent cobble to boulder. That’s normal up there.
- Glacial fill runs about 200 feet deep around Twisp and Winthrop and up to 1,000 feet near Mazama. There’s no rock floor to reach.
- Near Carlton there’s dense glacial till at 26 to 40 inches, right at footing and utility depth.
- Between Early Winters Creek and Weeman Bridge the fill is so deep and coarse that surface water seasonally runs underground. Downstream, bedrock pushes it back up.
- The Carlton Complex left measured consequences here. Roughly a quarter of the burned federal ground came back strongly water repellent, and modeled erosion in a 25 year storm went from under a fifth of a ton per acre to as much as 22 tons. Undersized culverts and missing drainage dips are where it fails.
Permits in the Methow
Twisp and Winthrop each issue their own permits. Carlton and Mazama are unincorporated and fall under Okanogan County critical areas, which specifically addresses alluvial fans.
Backcountry Excavation LLC is a registered Washington contractor, licensed, bonded and insured. You can check all of it before you hire us.
Services in the Methow Valley
What we do in the Methow Valley
Site Preparation in Methow Valley
Raw ground turned into a pad you can build on: cleared, stripped, cut to grade and compacted.
See the detailExcavation and Earthwork in Methow Valley
Digging, moving and placing dirt. Foundation holes, bulk earthwork, backfill and haul off.
See the detailGrading and Drainage in Methow Valley
Shaping ground so water leaves the property the way it should, instead of sitting against a building.
See the detailLand Clearing in Methow Valley
Overgrown or wooded ground opened up. Brush, stumps, slash and debris out, site left workable.
See the detailDriveways and Access Roads in Methow Valley
Gravel driveways and access roads built or rebuilt to hold up to weather, grade and loaded trucks.
See the detailUtility Trenching in Methow Valley
Trenching and backfill for water, power and other underground lines, dug to depth and bedded properly.
See the detailFoundation Excavation in Methow Valley
Foundation holes, footings and cutting to concrete grade, ready for the concrete crew.
See the detailStorm Drainage Systems in Methow Valley
Catch basins, storm pipe, culverts and drywells that carry storm water off the property.
See the detailRetaining Walls in Methow Valley
Vertical block and large retaining walls that hold a grade change where dirt alone won’t.
See the detailAsphalt Prep in Methow Valley
Subgrade cut, base rock placed and compacted, grades held so the paving crew can do their job.
See the detailDemolition in Methow Valley
Structures, slabs and hardscape taken down, material hauled off and the ground left clean.
See the detailEmergency work in Methow Valley
Washouts, broken lines, plugged culverts and storm damage. Call or text the owners.
What to do right nowSomething else in Methow Valley?
Most jobs are a combination. Describe what you want to end up with and we’ll work out the pieces.
Tell us about the jobQuestions
Methow Valley questions
Can you trench through this ground?
Usually not with a trencher. Cobble and boulder content up here means an excavator, and that changes the time and the price. We say so up front.
Do you do post fire drainage work?
Yes. Culvert sizing, drainage dips and protecting the toe of a fan are the three things that fail on burned ground, and all three are fixable before the next big rain.
Nearby
Other ground we work
Okanogan County
Omak and Okanogan, WA
Omak and Okanogan sit on stacked glacial lake terraces. Which terrace you’re on decides what the job actually is.
See the groundOkanogan County
Brewster, WA
Brewster, Bridgeport and Pateros sit on the Great Terrace of the Columbia. It’s layered, inconsistent ground that was stacked up against a wall of ice, and no two digs there go the same way.
See the groundChelan County
Chelan, WA
Chelan is home. It’s also where a lot of the hardest ground in the valley is, and most of what makes a job here difficult shows up before the first bucket of dirt moves.
See the groundWhat our machine fits through · How an estimate works · Permits and locates
Call or text the owners
Got a job in the Methow Valley?
Tell us where the site is and what you’re trying to get done. We’ll let you know whether we can take it on and roughly when.
(509) 421-1539