But flip to the list of the ten best cities east of the Cascades, and the Wenatchee Valley shows up twice. The Wenatchee Valley from high atop Badger Mountain via Canva The Wenatchee Valley from high atop Badger Mountain via Canva But the real winner east of the mountains was Liberty Lake, a planned community outside Spokane that claimed both the top eastside spot and 22nd place in the entire state — a genuinely impressive showing for a city most Western Washington residents have never heard of.