Outside
Best Hikes for Wildlife Spotting
Hike these trails to find owls and marmots and nearly 200 species of birds—oh my!
Golden Gate TrailParadise, Mount Rainier Difficulty: Moderate; 3 miles, approx. 1,000-foot elevation gain Location: About two and a half hours southeast of Seattle at Paradise on Mount Rainier. Nearest town: Ashford, 23 miles. $15 park entry fee; dogs prohibited; nps.gov In late summer, this trail cuts through a meadow so awash with vivid wildflower color, it…
Foodies Afloat
A new kind of moveable feast comes to the San Juan Islands.
Crudités with truffle salt…sweet corn soup with shrimp and jalapeño cornbread…bacon and kale farro with scrambled eggs…white chocolate raspberry cheesecake….It’s hardly what you’d expect to be served while on a sea kayaking trip. But I wasn’t on just any kayaking trip; I was tagging along on the inaugural voyage of a “gourmet” guided kayak trip…
LeMay: America’s Car Museum Opens in Tacoma
Tacoma’s new car museum is an ode to hitting the road.
Cars may have lost some street cred among bikers, environmentalists and anyone tired of pouring her paycheck into the gas tank, but a new museum in Tacoma is here to remind us of the glory days, when we could rev up and roll down the road free of guilt. LeMay: America’s Car Museum opens this…
Cannon Beach’s Annual Sandcastle Contest
WHERE: Cannon Beach, Oregon. WHY: The 48th Annual Sandcastle Contest (6/9, sculpting starts at 7:30 a.m., judging at noon; cbsandcastle.com), featuring incredible feats of architecture using the world’s most fickle medium. Open to contestants (register online) and spectators, the friendly competition invites sand sculptors of all ages to transform 20-foot-square plots of sand into spectacular…
Lighthouse Keeper: The New Dream Job
The email got me dreaming: Seattle mag writer Joe Follansbee sent word that his new book, the Fyddeye Guide to America’s Lighthouses, is now available. Joe, a consummate storyteller and maritime expert, has a boundless enthusiasm for these beautiful and historic beacons, as do I, after a weird and wonderful week I spent living in…
Summer Road Trips: 14 Small-Town Getaways
Leave the city behind for a weekend (or longer) and explore one of these tiny Northwest towns.
For many of us, it’s not a tough trade: swapping a reliable cell signal and ubiquitous WiFi for a sweet slice of small town heaven. Tucked away in all corners of the Northwest are tiny backwater hamlets, perched seaside, on idyllic bays or in mountain clefts, brimming with character, friendly locals and a peaceful main…
Take a Power Trip to Wild Horse Wind Farm
The Wild Horse wind farm near Ellensburg turns a small-town road trip into an eco-educational advent
From the moment they come into view as you climb the rolling hills just east of Ellensburg, what strikes you first about the turbines of the Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility is their scale. Structures that looked like tiny black pinwheels on toothpicks stuck into the dry earth from just a few short miles…
Eastern Escapes: Small-town Getaways
Head to the sunny side with a trip to these pastoral easterly locales.
Tieton{ Population: 1,191 }For the better part of the last decade, there wasn’t much more to the Yakima Valley town of Tieton than a handful of seldom-open storefronts clustered around a sleepy town square and a few abandoned fruit warehouses. But by a twist of fate involving a bicycle ride and a patch of goathead…
Northern Shores: Small-town Getaways
Bask in the vistas and stroll the quaint streets of these waterfront retreats.
Eastsound{ Population: 3,651 } Feel your city worries fall away as you rumble steadily northward up Puget Sound on one of our state’s iconic green-and-white ferryboats; you’ll be on “island time” by nightfall. Though it takes effort to get there—ferries depart from Anacortes; waits can top two hours in summer—Orcas Island’s biggest hamlet, Eastsound, is…
Coastal Idylls: Small-town Getaways
Three sweet seaside oases that let you leave your cares at the beach.
Ilwaco{ Population: 936 } When your cell-phone reception gives out and the air is sharp with a briny breeze, you’ll know you’re getting close to Ilwaco. Nestled into the southern end of the Long Beach Peninsula in southwest Washington, Ilwaco is part hard-working fishing port and part relaxed vacation destination. Harbor strollers can take in…
Visit Portland for Rothko Paintings and Good Eats
A retrospective exhibit of the abstract painter's career and two new eateries make the trek south ne
WHERE: Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon. WHY: For the Mark Rothko Retrospective (through 5/27; prices vary; 1219 SW Park Ave.; 503.226.2811; portlandartmuseum.org), which boasts 45 works by the Russian-born and Portland-raised painter, known for his rectangles of saturated color. The show spans the artist’s five-decade career, revealing his roots in figurative and surrealist work….
Join The Must List
Don't miss a thing.
Get Seattle's best events,handpicked
and delivered to your inbox weekly.