Washington

Washington offers hiking, mountaineering, sea kayaking, and skiing across dramatic contrasts. Mount Rainier (14,411 ft) is a world climbing-training peak with 26 named glaciers; Olympic spans rainforest, coast, and alpine; and the North Cascades hold over 300 glaciers — more than anywhere in the Lower 48 outside Alaska.

The San Juan Islands, the Columbia River Gorge, and Palouse Falls round out the recreation.

Summer through early fall (July–October) is the dry, reliable season for the mountains and trails, with high-country snow lingering into July. The coast and rainforest are lush year-round; ski season is long in the Cascades.

Roosevelt elk, black bears, mountain goats, and orcas (the endangered southern residents) inhabit Washington, with salmon runs, sea otters, and seabirds along the rich Salish Sea, plus a recovering gray-wolf population in the northeast and Cascades.

From temperate rainforest (the Hoh gets up to 14 feet of rain) and old-growth Douglas fir to alpine glaciers, the shrub-steppe of the Columbia Basin, and the productive Salish Sea, Washington spans extremes within a few hours' drive.

The volcanic Cascade Range — including glacier-clad Mount Rainier and the famously erupted Mount St. Helens — divides the wet, forested west from the arid Columbia Plateau east, with the uplifted Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound's drowned shoreline to the northwest. The 1980 St. Helens eruption removed 1,300 feet of the mountain's summit.

Coast Salish, Chinook, and many other tribes have inhabited the region for millennia and retain treaty rights. Reached by the Oregon Trail and maritime trade, Washington became the 42nd state in 1889, and Mount St. Helens erupted catastrophically on May 18, 1980.

A strong mountaineering tradition (Rainier trains the world's climbers), Salish Sea kayaking and orca culture, and a deep environmental ethic centered on Seattle define the outdoors, alongside the living cultures of the coastal and plateau tribes.

Protecting old-growth forest and salmon, recovering the endangered southern resident orcas, the Elwha River dam-removal restoration, and managing wildfire are central concerns.

Seattle-Tacoma (SEA) is the major gateway, with Spokane serving the east. Ferries reach the San Juans, a vehicle is essential, and Cascade passes (including North Cascades Highway) can close with snow.

Mountaineering on the glaciated volcanoes demands skill and gear; the Pacific coast has sneaker waves and big tides (consult tables), and Cascade weather, avalanches, and late-summer wildfire smoke require preparation.

State parks require a Discover Pass, and Washington Fish and Wildlife administers licenses; the national parks require passes, and climbing Rainier requires a permit.

Practice Leave No Trace, store food against bears, and check road and pass conditions in winter.

Hit the high country in summer (snow lingers into July), explore the Hoh Rainforest and wild coast on the Olympic Peninsula (mind the tides), and take the ferry to the San Juans for orcas and kayaking. Carry a Discover Pass for state lands.

Washington borders Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia, Canada, linking the Cascades, the Columbia Gorge, the San Juans, and Vancouver Island.