A Twin Peaks Tour of Snoqualmie and North Bend

Great Northern Hotel 🪵

AKA Salish Lodge & Spa and Snoqualmie Falls

📍6501 Railroad Ave SE, Snoqualmie

Twin Peaks’ Great Northern Hotel was owned by Audrey Horne’s (Sherilyn Fenn) dad and is where Agent Cooper stayed during his investigation in room 315. Depending on how deep you want to go, you can check out the full hotel menu on the Twin Peaks wiki. While you’re unlikely to find a Firecracker Surprise Omelette for $4 at the Salish Lodge & Spa, the brunch at the lodge’s dining room—where every table has a westward view of the Snoqualmie River Valley—is always recommended. 

Look for dishes with a bee symbol, like the Spiced Honey French Toast, to get the Honey From Heaven™ experience, where the waiter pours honey from Salish hives from high above your plate like a waterfall. If you’re concluding your day at the Lodge, they offer a date night special on Thursdays. For $200, you and your Bobby Briggs can get a three-course seasonal meal with dessert and a bottle of wine. For the budget-conscious, head upstairs to the cozy “Attic” for lighter fare and specialty cocktails like the gin-based Dale Cooper or the Mt. Si, a spruced up whisky drink.  

Heads-up: On February 24th, Salish Lodge does a Twin Peaks-themed brunch and show paraphernalia, like a Room 315 key tag, is sold in the Country Store. Free parking is available across the street from the Falls.

Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department 👮

AKA DirtFish Rally School

📍 7001 396th Dr SE, Snoqualmie

Twin Peaks’ opening credits—with theme music by longtime Lynch collaborator Angelo Badalamenti—is an homage to the region at a time when active lumber mills were still prominent. Since 2010, the lumber mill location in Twin Peaks has been home to DirtFish Rally School, a 300-acre rally car course where you can learn how to safely drive two and four wheel drive cars very fast. As you drive into DirtFish’s parking lot, you’ll see the 1989 Ford Bronco that served as Sheriff Harry S. Truman’s (played by Canadian Michael Ontkean) vehicle he drove Agent Cooper around in. The location that served as the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department is now the main office of DirtFish, and it’s worth popping into the gift shop and seeing the Renault and Peugeot rally cars parked inside. 

The Mill 🏭

AKA The Old Weyerhaeuser Mill

📍 7001 396th Dr SE, Snoqualmie

Before the DirtFish Rally School moved in, the site was one of Weyerhaeuser’s mills. Various buildings were closed until it was totally shut down in 2003. Long abandoned, the mill sits cordoned off at the edge of the rally course and near the edge of the Snoqualmie River.

Stay with me on this very soap operaish Twin Peaks backstory of the mill: A character named Josie Packard inherited the mill after her husband Andrew’s death and it was managed by Andrew’s sister Catherine Martell and her husband Pete, who was the first to find Laura Palmer’s body along the edge of a river when he went out fishing. (As to the mystery of why oversized plaid shirts were a grunge staple, it’s probably because kids were wearing their mill worker dad’s old lumberjack shirts.)

Double R Diner ☕

AKA Twede’s Cafe

📍 137 W North Bend Way, North Bend

Double R Diner is where Agent Dale Cooper regularly ordered a slice of cherry pie and a “damn fine cup of coffee” from owner Norma Jennings (Peggy Lipton). It’s also where Shelly Johnson (Mädchen Amick) was picked up by secret boyfriend Bobby Briggs after her morning shift so they could make seggs when her abusive husband Leo Johnson was out of town. 

In years past, ownership wasn’t keen on the Twin Peaks connection, as evidenced by the aggressive Tweety Bird decor throughout. Prior to filming Twin Peaks: The Return in 2015, the cafe was returned to its full Double R wood paneled walls and yellow formica table glory. Then in March 2020, the cafe was purchased by former cafe waitress and Twin Peaks superfan Rachel Bennett (DAMN FINE is tattooed on the inside of her fingers) and her husband Max Spears. A quarantine lockdown restaurant success story, they were able to retain all of their 30 employees—a majority of whom have worked there from five to twenty-five years—through PPP loans and a fan-initiated GoFundMe. 

In addition to a classic American diner menu, they also sell an array of merch featuring contemporary takes from the Twin Peaks universe, like psychedelic Log Lady and Weird Bob stickers, a tote with an illustration of the cafe, and cherry pie and a cup of coffee magnets and enamel pins. And if you can’t get there in person but want to take Agent Cooper on his advice to, “Every day, once a day, give yourself a present,” they also ship cherry pie (also available in vegan) and coffee anywhere in the country.