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.
Washington grows more apples than any other state, so when the harvest comes in each fall, it is the main event rather than a novelty. From the orchards of the Wenatchee valley to the you pick farms of Green Bluff outside Spokane, the towns that live off the crop throw open their pioneer villages, cider…
The oompah band hits its stride, a fresh keg gives up its first hiss, and the smell of warm pretzels and grilling bratwurst rolls down the street while a crowd falls into the chicken dance. That is Oktoberfest, and in Washington it is not a single weekend in one town. From a mountain brewery keg…
The 15 best fall hikes in Washington, from golden larch loops in the North Cascades to easy maple walks near Seattle, with distance, timing, and passes.
Somewhere in a field outside Snohomish, twelve acres of corn are cut into the exact shape of Washington State. You can walk from the Puget Sound coast across the Cascades and out toward the Idaho border, following more than 250 real roads and 400 towns and landmarks carved into the rows, on about four and…
The bay doors are open and a forklift is backing a half ton bin of grapes toward the crush pad. Someone in purple stained gloves is pulling stems off the sorting line. The destemmer is running, the air smells like fermenting juice and diesel, and off to one side a fresh barrel of press juice…
Washington does fall in two acts, and most people only catch one. The gold goes first and high: alpine larches torching the North Cascades in the first two weeks of October. The red and orange come later and lower: maple country along the highway corridors and in the city parks, peaking in the middle of…
Washington packs more variety into one state park system than almost anywhere in the country. In a single day you can walk beneath old growth cedars on a foggy island, then drive east and stand at the lip of a desert canyon carved by Ice Age floods. With 146 parks to choose from, though, the…
Most people picture Pride in Washington as one Sunday in late June, downtown Seattle, the parade down Fourth Avenue. That day is real, and it is the biggest single event in the state. It is also a small slice of what actually happens here. Pride season in Washington runs from the first weekend of June…
The Bainbridge Island ferry pulls away from Colman Dock and clears Elliott Bay in about ten minutes. If you are standing on the outdoor deck when it does, you get the full Seattle skyline receding behind you and the Olympic Mountains ahead. It is one of the best views in Washington State and it costs…
Washington throws a party in every season. From tulip fields and lavender farms to Bavarian beer halls and a citywide celebration with the Blue Angels overhead, the state’s festivals are some of the best reasons to plan a trip around the calendar. This is our curated guide to the celebrations worth building a weekend around,…
