How apocalyptic this fire season is

It’s still 2020 and the pandemic-/-climate change apocalypse just got even worse. The West Coast is burning. Residents of the San Francisco Bay Area awoke to dark orange skies, as a thick layer of smoke settled over Northern California. (Smoke scatters blue light, allowing only red and yellow to reach the ground.) It’s hard to overstate how really, terribly bad this fire...

Learn More

Government officials adopt plan to expand Washington region trail network to 1,400 miles

The region’s top transportation board has endorsed a proposal for a network of trails stretching across the greater Washington region, from Frederick, Md., to Prince William County, Va., that would expand the amount of off-road bicycle and pedestrian pathways to 1,400 miles. The extensive trail system would more than double the size of the existing network by adding 755...

Learn More

New segment of Lake to Sound Trail opens, linking trails and transit

A new segment of King County Parks’ Lake to Sound Trail opened that will eventually connect Lake Washington to Puget Sound in 16-miles of paved trail. The trail will connect five South King County, WA cities – Renton, Tukwila, Burien, SeaTac, and Des Moines. It also connects to four regional trails – Eastrail, Cedar River Trail, Interurban Trail, and Green River Trail —...

Learn More

The Best Day Hiking Near Seattle

Within an hour or two of downtown Seattle, you can be in desolate wilderness, hiking through evergreen forests with views of Puget Sound, Mount Rainier, and the Olympic range. The Seattle, WA area is full of great hikes, but some of them are more well-known and crowded than others. The hike up Mount Si is hardly a secret. You can find half of Seattle here on sunny...

Learn More

Hiking for Gold

Autumn is the time when many in the Pacific Northwest make the trek to the North Cascades to drive the Mountain Loop and North Cascade Highways in search of fall color, apple cider, and huckleberry jam. But have you ever hiked to see a larch, a deciduous conifer? Unlike most conifers, such as cedar and fir, which are evergreen, the larch drops its needles in winter. But...

Learn More

Hiking the Longs Pass Trail offers remarkable views of the Cascades

The Longs Pass Trail, on the east side of the Cascades Mountains Range, is seven miles round trip, with a net gain/loss of 2,100 feet. The pass itself is at an elevation of 6,250 feet. The well-marked and well-maintained trailhead is due east from the parking lot. It is a steady climb from its start in the cool forest of the valley. It slowly transitions to exposed rocky...

Learn More

Want to go hiking with small kids? Here’s where to take them.

Hiking with a child won’t be the same as hiking with adults. The goal with kids is much more about the journey than the destination. Here are four basic ideas to keep in mind: Modify your goals. You may not reach the end of the trail. You may not even hike a mile. Adjust your hike to the enjoyment and comfort level of children. Pack patience and flexibility. If you see a...

Learn More

Hiker’s Handbook: Best U.S. Hiking Cities

Most of us will never have the time for a 6-month thru hike, but a good day hike can be as refreshing as a week in the backcountry. And if you know where to look, trails abound—even near a concrete jungle. Here are some of the best U.S. cities for getting that backcountry fix in easy-access doses. Portland Smack in the middle of town, Forest Park, Portland’s 5,200-acre...

Learn More

A day with long-haul hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail

They’re easy to spot this time of year in the North Cascades: lean, fast-moving hiking machines in their trail-running shoes, ultralightweight backpacks and a look in the eyes that says they have places to go. It’s the annual migration of thousands of northbound hikers traveling the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail from the Mexico border to Canada. Most of them began the...

Learn More

Work being done to perfect the Pacific Northwest Trail

The Pacific Northwest Trail is meant to showcase pristine wilderness, but the portion that passes through Skagit County, Washington isn’t living up to the rugged nature of the majority of the trail’s 1,200 miles. Hikers who walk the length of the trail spend months climbing mountains, scrambling over brush and dodging high tides along the coast as they make their way...

Learn More

Closed Oregon Trails In Columbia River Gorge Jam Trailheads On Washington Side

More than 30 popular hiking trails on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge remain closed because of hazards left in the wake of last year’s Eagle Creek wildfire. That has park rangers wrangling crowds on the unburned Washington side of the Gorge. Unsafe conditions will likely keep many trails on the Oregon side of the western Gorge closed until this summer...

Learn More

Public can weigh in on proposed improvements to Pacific Northwest Trail

After traversing Montana, Idaho and the North Cascades, hikers on the Pacific Northwest Trail pass through Whatcom and Skagit counties on their way to the Washington coast. Pacific Northwest Trail Association Executive Director Jeff Kish said in this area the trail could use some improvements and that now is the time for the public to get involved. The Mount...

Learn More

The Cold War’s Toxic Legacy: Costly, Dangerous Cleanups at Atomic Bomb Production Sites

Seventy-five years ago, in March 1943, a mysterious construction project began at a remote location in eastern Washington state. Over the next two years some 50,000 workers built an industrial site occupying half the area of Rhode Island, costing more than $230 million—equivalent to $3.1 billion today. Few of those workers, and virtually no one in the surrounding...

Learn More

Rural communities can coexist with wolves. Here’s how.

Because wolves are prolific breeders and able to adapt to a range of habitats, they do fine, so long as they’re not poisoned, trapped or profusely shot. The key to a future for wolves is retaining public support by minimizing conflict. That means finding ways for wolves and ranchers to coexist. Washington has forged a model for building coexistence based on bringing...

Learn More

After its dams came down, a river is reborn

The Elwha River starts at Dodwell-Rixon Pass, a high crack in Washington’s Olympic Mountains. There, a hiker who crossed would find the Elwha Snowfinger, formed by heavy winter storms and the avalanches that pour off the surrounding mountainsides. Wedged into a steep-walled gully, it forms the upper reaches of the Elwha basin. If the hiker followed this snow down,...

Learn More

Hate Hiking on Crowded Trails? You’ll Likely Have This Uninhabited Island of Ancient Cedars To Yourself

Some people hike to get away from the rest of humanity. There’s nothing worse for them than climbing up to a waterfall to discover a gaggle of people posing for selfies, and if there are more than three cars at the trailhead, they start grousing that their pristine woodland is basically a shopping mall. For them, there will always be the ancient cedars of Long...

Learn More

Exploring the Hiking Trails of Olympia’s Priest Point Park

Olympia, Washington has a special relationship with nature and its parks. For generations residents have been taking friends and family members out into nature, enjoying picnics, hiking through forests and strolling along the beaches, connecting with the community and lands they call home. Since 1905, when it was first opened to the public, Priest Point Park has been...

Learn More

Olympic National Park: Mountains, forests and shores

Olympic National Park is located in the same state as Mount Rainier, the Cascade Mountains and volcanic Mount St. Helens, but it still holds its own as a tourist attraction and cultural touchpoint. While Rainier, the Cascades and St. Helens are merely mountains, the 922,651-acre Olympic is “three parks in one,” as the National Park Service puts it. Like them, it has...

Learn More

Popular Spokane-area hiking trails expanded, improved

Hikers and mountain bikers are out for a pleasant surprise when they make their next visit to some of the Spokane, Washington area’s most popular trail systems. Agencies and growing stable of trained volunteers have been quietly chipping away in recent years at improving old trails and building new ones on county, state and federal areas. The results are impressive at...

Learn More

Best hikes of the Columbia River Gorge

Hiking season is underway in the Columbia River Gorge. While occasionally spectacular during the depths of winter, it’s the spring months of April, May and June when the Gorge reaches its scenic peak. Blooms of wildflowers, roaring waterfalls, panoramic viewpoints and mossy forest combine to offer singular hiking experiences up and down the national scenic area. To get...

Learn More

Could Grizzlies Make Good Neighbors?

For 20,000 years, grizzly bears padded over Washington’s North Cascades, foraging for berries and plants, hunting small prey, and fishing for salmon in frigid streams. Then a few centuries ago, white settlers showed up and starting shooting, and driving the bears out. Today only a handful of grizzlies remain in these mountains. Documentaries and fictional films, from...

Learn More

Missing mailbox replaced on Washington’s Mailbox Peak

Eric Piggott of Washington hiked to the top of Mailbox Peak for his birthday this week – to replace a missing, legendary mailbox with a new, donated one. “The last time I saw the previous box was three weeks ago on my last hike there,” Piggott said. “In my talks with various people, I’ve learned that there have been as many as eight other mailboxes over the...

Learn More

A massive climate march is coming to Washington in April

The People’s Climate March will descend on D.C. with an intersectional coalition of green and environmental-justice groups, indigenous and civil-rights organizations, students and labor unions. The march will take place on Saturday, April 29, 2017, exactly 100 days into Trump’s presidency. In January, the Women’s March gathered half a million demonstrators in D.C. alone....

Learn More

County in Washington approves trail plan for new 8,844-acre Lake Whatcom parkland

Building the first 27 miles of proposed trails in new Whatcom County parkland that straddles Lake Whatcom will cost about $2.3 million. That’s one of the details in the recreational trail plan for the parkland, which was created by the transfer of 8,844 acres of forest land around Lake Whatcom from the state to the county in 2014. The County Council approved the plan,...

Learn More

What Happens When You Demolish Two 100-Year-Old Dams

Can the largest river restoration project in history serve as a template for other waterways across the country? “A river is never silent…Reservoirs stilled my song.” Narrated from the point of view of Washington’s Elwha River, a new documentary about the largest dam removal project in U.S. history starts off on a somber tone before building toward the best...

Learn More

New bridges open access to Washington’s 23-mile-long Willapa Hills Trail

The Willapa Hills Trail keeps getting better — and longer. It’s now possible to walk or even ride a bicycle for 23 miles from Chehalis in Southwestern Washington to Pe Ell without getting stopped by a washed-out bridge. The State Parks Commission will hold a public dedication to several new bridges on the trail at 10 a.m. June 18, 2016 in Adna. On June 25, the Willapa...

Learn More

Hiking community fights to save popular North Sound trail from logging

Near Seattle, WA, one of the North Sound’s most popular and scenic hiking trails is in danger of being logged. Unless the state can allocate $7.5 million, the 100-year-old trees that cover Oyster Dome — between Mount Vernon and Bellingham – will be cut down by the Department of Natural Resources. Craig Romano tackles the popular hike off Highway 11 on a...

Learn More

Deal Nears On Southeast Washington Candy Mountain Land & Hiking Trail

Conservationists in Washington’s Tri-Cities are nearing a deal to secure a trail right-of-way on a scenic peak. That would get closer to the goal of establishing a 20-mile trail that could offer sunny, dry hiking at times of year when most trails elsewhere in the Northwest are muddy or snow covered. This 200-acre purchase would secure a trail up the southeast flank of...

Learn More