Although Seattle is one of America's most likeable and vibrant cities, well worth a few days of anybody's time, perhaps its greatest asset for visitors is its proximity to the glorious rural scenery of Puget Sound . The islands here are stepping stones to the Olympic Peninsula to the west, whose mountains are home to rare elk and lush vegetation that merges into rainforest, and whose wilderness beaches have remained unchanged for centuries. The Olympic National Park , which occupies the bulk of the peninsula, is dazzling, and a hike along one of its clearly laid-out trails can be a highlight of any trip. Just make sure that you don't mind the wet, often stormy weather of western Washington, which only offers predictably warm temperatures and blue skies during the summer.

Not quite as rainy as the mountains to the northeast, the southern coast is flatter and more accessible but not as appealing, littered with industrial towns and glum holiday resorts. The nearest worthwhile destination lies a few hours east, where you can marvel at the wasted volcanic scenery of Mount St Helens .

Much drier and more desolate, the sprawling prairie-plateau that makes up most of eastern Washington is a long, slow grind with little of interest, though if a cross-country trek takes you through Spokane , the Grand Coulee Dam is worth a detour. Otherwise you're only likely to come out here if you're traveling the Cascade loop, a memorable 400-mile round-trip through the stunning Cascade Mountains .  TOP

Getting to and along the coast is more difficult and requires some planning. Ferries from Seattle shuttle across to Winslow, on Bainbridge Island , from where Kitsap Transit services link with Jefferson Transit for access to Port Angeles, Port Townsend and Olympic National Park. In the Seattle and Puget Sound area, ferries (mostly run by Washington State Ferries; Washington: tel 206/464-6400 or 1-888/808-7977; British Columbia: tel 250/381-1551, ) are a reliable and enjoyable method of getting to such places as Whidbey Island and the San Juan Islands. There are also long-distance services, to Canada from Seattle, Anacortes and Port Angeles, and to Alaska from Bellingham. TOP

Cascade Mountains
The idyllic beauty of the snowcapped and pine-covered Cascade Mountains actually conceals awesome volcanic power - as demonstrated by the 1980 explosion of Mount St Helens . But away from the truncated, rocky stump resulting from the blast, the Cascades offer mile upon mile of forested wilderness, stretching from Canada down to Oregon, traversed by a skein of beautiful trails - which, for all but a few summer months, you'll need snowshoes to follow. The most popular access point is Mount Rainier , set in its own national park some ninety miles southeast of Seattle, while the protected zone around Mount St Helens also rewards a visit for its eerie scenery. Further north, the North Cascades National Park demands more time; Hwy-20, the high mountain road that crosses the Cascades, is by far the most spectacular route to eastern Washington.

Eastern Washington
Big, dry and hot, eastern Washington has little in common with the green, western side of the state: faded olive-colored sagebrush covers many acres, and massive red rocks loom over the prairies, while huge bare patches of basalt and torn-away groundcover (from centuries of Ice Age floods) give the area the unattractive geological moniker of the " channeled scablands ." Further south, the lower Yakima Valley is a vast agricultural belt with miles of orchards and farms that flank the Yakima River. With over 300 sunny days a year, this region is the largest producer of apples in the world, though that claim is increasingly threatened by cheap fruit imports from the Far East. In the last 20 years, however, this has also become one of the Northwest's major wine regions. The area towns are agricultural and commercial centers, and only Spokane has any degree of cultural life. Nevertheless, some are excellent bases for winery tours or outdoor activities such as rafting, fishing, hiking, paragliding and skiing.

Olympic Peninsula
The broad mass of the Olympic Peninsula projects across Puget Sound, sheltering Seattle from the open sea. Small towns are sprinkled sparingly along US-101, which loops the peninsula's coast, but at the core the Olympic Mountains thrust upwards, shredding rain clouds as they drift in from the Pacific and drenching the surrounding area. In the western river valleys, the dense vegetation thickens into rainforest, and the forests and unspoiled Pacific beaches provide habitat for a huge variety of wildlife and seabirds.

Although much of the peninsula is now protected land, and large areas of national forest surround the rugged and verdant preserve of Olympic National Park , the legacy of timber clear-cutting provides an all-too-visible scar on the landscape, especially if you venture off the main roads into an ecological dead zone riddled with ugly stumps and uprooted vegetation. The lumber trade brought the first Western settlers here in the nineteenth century, and while almost every town has a sawmill, the industry is in crisis and ecologists favor tourism as the lesser environmental evil.

Puget Sound
The broad and deep Puget Sound hooks far into Washington, a clutter of tiny islands and ragged peninsulas teeming with yachts, oceangoing ships, fishing trawlers and even nuclear submarines. At first, the dense forest deterred homesteaders, but soon small logging communities sprang up, and the Sound became a vital waterway. As more settlers arrived, the demand for land grew, and in the 1850s treaties confining Native Americans to reservations were put before tribal leaders. Some signed, including Chief Sealth of the Suquamish, but others refused and accusations of forgery flew. A legacy of injustice was created, with which modern courts still struggle.

The southern end of the Sound is increasingly urban, and from the colorless vantage point of the I-5 freeway, this is all that less inquisitive visitors see of it. Although there's little to attract visitors to industrial Tacoma or the small state capital of Olympia , all around are appealing mountains, forests and lakes. Popular weekend escapes include rural parts of Whidbey Island , and the beautiful San Juan Islands further north.  TOP