The Saturday Verdict: Handle the icons fast, then go find the neighborhoods. Most lists of things to do in Seattle hand you the same six attractions and call it a city. Pike Place, the Space Needle, a harbor cruise, done. That is the airport flyer version of Seattle, and it is the least interesting day…
If you are looking for the best coffee in downtown Everett, the good news is that you have some hard choices to make, because there is more of it than this old mill town usually gets credit for. Quick note for the regulars first: yes, the show is back. After six months off, I relaunched…
Every July, a quiet farming valley on the north edge of the Olympic Peninsula turns purple, and the whole town leans into it. Sequim calls itself the Lavender Capital of North America, and for one weekend in the middle of summer it more than earns the title. The Sequim Lavender Festival is the celebration at…
Washington joined the Union as the 42nd state, so here are 42 fun facts to match: the only state named after a president, a Bigfoot refuge, a full size Stonehenge, and more.
There are 14 Columbia River state parks Washington has designated along its shores, and most visitors only know a few of them. The Columbia runs more than 300 miles through the state, from the Canadian border to the Pacific coast, and each park on its shores is completely different from the last. What makes this…
The Saturday Verdict: Worth it. But your real options are smaller than the search results suggest, and a couple of them disappeared in the last year. Two historic lodges. Two drive up campgrounds one that takes reservations. One year round campground that turned into a backcountry hike when a bridge was condemned in April 2025….
Saturday Verdict: Worth a Saturday for the drive and a hike. Worth a weekend if you fish, float, or camp. The Yakima River Canyon is the 25-mile stretch of State Route 821 that connects Ellensburg and Yakima through basalt cliffs and high desert. Most people on I-82 between Seattle and the Tri-Cities have never turned…
Have you ever had a place entirely to yourself? I pulled into the Fort Simcoe Historical State Park parking lot on a September afternoon and found it completely empty. Not a single other car. For a park that preserves one of the few surviving frontier forts from the 1850s in the Pacific Northwest, that kind…
The Saturday Verdict: Worth it. But plan to stay overnight. Visiting Hoh Rainforest means stepping into the wettest place in the contiguous United States. 140 inches of rain per year. Sitka spruce trees over 300 feet tall wrapped in so much old man’s beard lichen they look like something from a film set. Roosevelt elk…
Washington State puts on a serious Fourth of July. From a 45-minute fireworks show over a coastal marina to drone displays lighting up city parks, from laser beams projected across the face of one of the largest dams in the world to families lining miles of Pacific beach with sparklers, the state offers more ways…
You do not need a boat to see a whale in Washington. You need a parking spot, a pair of binoculars, and enough patience to stand at a headland and watch the water. Whale watching Washington state offers some of the best shore based viewing in the world. Orcas, gray whales, humpbacks, and minkes all…
Saturday Verdict: Worth a full day. Worth two days if you time it for late April or early May. Birding North Cascades Highway (SR 20) is something most of the spring crowd misses entirely. The road opens every season to motorcyclists, photographers, and people who have been watching the WSDOT pass cam since March. What…
