Brian Alley did not set out to run a music festival. He offered to help with one. He spent years on the road with Never Come Down, a Portland band that played bluegrass instruments and pretty much anything else, from Gillian Welch to Ween. When the band was booked for Cidergrass, a small festival in…
The best coffee in Tacoma, all 43 shops by neighborhood. Which ones roast on site, which open at 4:30 AM, and the handful still pouring after seven.
Renton coffee shops sorted by whether you are sitting down or driving through. 22 local shops by neighborhood, with the 4 AM windows and the few places open past six.
Bellingham coffee shops sorted by what you need: a room to sit in, a roaster to buy from, or a window at 4:30 AM. 18 local shops, by neighborhood.
Most photographs of Washington State are made in a fraction of a second. John Shephard’s are not. One of his two cameras, a Noblex 135U built by hand in Germany, has a lens mounted on a cylinder that physically rotates during the exposure. At its slowest setting, that cylinder takes two minutes and twenty seconds…
Scott drove to the town of Okanogan, in Okanogan County, and sat down in the offices of the Okanogan Land Trust with Kate Miller, its executive director. He admits on tape that the naming situation gets him every time. The trust is small. Two staff and an intern, with a conservation coordinator role currently open,…
Kelsey Lang has one of the stranger commutes in Washington State Parks. She walks. She lives in ranger housing at Fort Flagler, which means her daughter grew up with a historic coastal fort for a backyard. Interpretive specialist is the job title on paper. In practice she introduces herself to visiting kids as Ranger Kelsey,…
Free camping in Washington State is legal, it is everywhere, and there is more of it here than in almost any state in the West. The national forests alone cover more than 9 million acres, and across most of that ground you can pull off a gravel road tonight and sleep for free, legally, without…
The best time to visit Pike Place Market is a weekday morning before 10am. Here is when to go, where to park, how long to stay, and what is worth skipping.
A region by region guide to the best camping in Washington State, from the Pacific coast to the high desert, with reservation tips and a full guide behind every campground.
Washington State is home to three national parks, and no other state in the lower 48 fits this much variety into a single weekend of driving. Mount Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades all sit within about three hours of Seattle, yet each one feels like a different country. One is built around a single glaciated…
Grand Coulee Dam’s laser show runs nightly through September 30. When to go, how to tour it, where to get the best view, and what the dam cost the river.
