Washington State Vacation Ideas
Washington State's endless escapes make it one of the world's great travel destinations.
Campers can set-up tents beside creeks, cliffs and caverns.
Most any part of Washington's forests, rocky cliffs, snowy mountains, and ocean, rivers or lakes can be a wildlife viewing site.
Adventurous souls can chose to venture deep into rain forests or distant strands of mountain, others choose to go white-water rafting, river kayaking, and hiking.
You will be hard pressed to find a place with a wider array of species. Depending on where you are at in Washington State you will find gymnastic like Orcas, elk, eagles, spawning salmon, big horn sheep and mountain goats.
Kayaking
Exploring the waters of Washington is not limited to rivers and streams. An array of settings including the always churning Pacific Ocean, Alpine Wilderness and serene flatlands will give you new meaning of the word beautiful.
Kayakers might find themselves cavorting with seals, sea lions and occasionally with orcas.
Washington's wild rivers provide white water kayakers every level of intensity desired atop.
2 to 3-mile-high volcanoes propel their snowmelt toward the sea each spring creating the roaring rivers that challenge the most extreme of us.
Hiking
Washington State is one of the few places where you can take a three-mile hike that ends where "cedar meets seaweed" says experiencewa.com.
Blanketed with more than a million acres of cedar, hemlock and Doug fir Washington State is an inviting place to hike, swim, boat, catch fish and watch wildlife.
Olympic National Park
Olympic National Park is a fragile remnant of wild America, an ancient sanctuary for humans and wild creatures alike.
On this distinguished assortment of land you will find Pacific Ocean beaches, rain forest valleys, glacier-capped peaks and an astonishing variety of plants and animals.
Roads provide access to the outer edges of the park, but the heart of Olympic is wilderness, so bring your map and compass.
Roaring beaches of wilderness coast, old-growth forests and peaks and ridges of the high country will draw you back to reality from the high pace lifestyle that many of us are lost in.
At night Washington State willl loose you in its night sky. It is a great opportunity to teach yourself and the children about the planets and the night sky. One of my favorite things to do is look for constellations and for just a few dollars you can pick up a star finder. It's not hard to do and it is a lifetime of knowledge and fun for everyone.
Silver Lake and Mount St. Helens
Seaquest State Park is a 475-acre camping park near Mount St. Helens. The beautifully forested park claims over a mile of Silver Lake shoreline.
See spectacular views of wildlife on a one-mile of wetland trail and six miles of woodland trails designated for hiking and bicycling.
Great seasonal fishing, boating and swimming are also available at Silver Lake and the surrounding area.
Mount Rainier National Park
There are few places on Earth where you learn about glaciers and listen to it crack, discover life in a rainforest, explore sub alpine ecology and hike an exquisite trail.
Mount Rainier National Park offers excellent opportunities for scenic drives, hiking, and mountain climbing. Most roads are open from late May to early October and all provide stunning views and access to a variety of hiking trails and other sites.
Shi Shi Beach
Bold sea stacks and arches stand in defiance of the unyielding ocean. On a weekday during the off-season you are likely to have this place all to yourself.
One of the most difficult beaches to reach, Shi Shi is well worth the effort. Hidden caves and the finest tide pools spots will erase the effort you went to getting there.
The waves and wind reshape this outstanding beach daily, so going there once is never enough.
The trail to Shi Shi is short from the north. The beach itself starts on the Native Makah land and arcs south for two miles to Point of Arches.
Lighthouses
Along weather-beaten beaches, and nestled in on tiny islands, Washington State lighthouses serve as both functional and contribute to Washington's rich maritime history.
Ape Cave
A logger named Lawrence Johnson discovered Ape Cave in 1947. However, the cave was not explored until the early 1950's when a scout troop, led by Harry Reese, lowered a team of scouts down a 17-foot overhang to the cave floor. Leaving footprints where no one ever had, these explorers were able to travel through a pristine lava tube full of fragile formations.
Formed from Mount St. Helens only known basaltic eruption of the volcano, Ape Cave marks an unusual period in it's eruptive history.
About 2,000 years ago, fluid basaltic lava poured down the southern flank of the volcano. As the lava flowed, chunks of the lava's surface cooled, crashed and fused together creating a hardened crust.
In turn, the crust insulated the molten lava beneath, allowing it to remain fluid and travel down to the Lewis River Valley. The hot flowing lava began melting into the pre-existing rock and soil.
This thermal erosion deepened and widened the channel of the flow. The level of lava in the tube rose and fell as the eruption surged and slowed, contributing to the unique contours of the walls.
During this eruptive period, hot fluid lava pulsed through the tube for months, possibly up to a year, until the eruption subsided. As a result of this rare eruption, a spectacular 13,042 foot long lava tube, the third longest in North America, was created.
Beacon Rock State Park
This 4,650-acre year-round camping park has historic significance dating back hundreds of years. The park includes 9,500 feet of freshwater shoreline on the Columbia River and offers excellent opportunities for rock climbing except where it interferes with nesting raptors.
There is fishing on the lower Columbia River, below Bonneville Dam, for sturgeon, salmon, steelhead, bass and walleye. The horse and bike trails are multi-use, with hikers allowed and this beautiful park is a popular site for weddings.
Washington State has much more to it than this one article can cover. I would highly recommend taking a trip there.
Enjoy your vacation!
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