![]() Years later, legend says, the bootlegger lost the whole parcel in a card game. Once the lands were deeded to the state, the 2,000-foot limestone cavern became a graffitied hangout during the middle of the twentieth century (that’s the bummer part of the tale) before the park instituted tours-only access in 1977. The tale begins around 1900, when a bootlegger literally stumbled into current-day Crawford State Park’s central attraction, Gardner Cave, while hiding illegal booze. Dive at Saltwater State Parkĭes Moines, 0.5 hours from Seattle | Tide Pools, Dive Park, Volleyball Fields Day users go a few miles overnighters tackle the entire 110 miles. But for now, the Palouse to Cascades runs unbroken from near North Bend to the Columbia River, the old railroad tracks reincarnated as a gravel route at a gentle grade and the country’s longest hikeable railroad tunnel, a 2.3-mile stumble in the dark near Snoqualmie. A recent rebranding-until 2018 it was called the John Wayne Pioneer Trail and Iron Horse State Park-has brought pushes to complete missing segments in Eastern Washington. Paul and Pacific Railroad, reborn today as a 110-mile stretch of rails-to-trail for hikers, bikers, and horseback riders. This byway actually replaces the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. The ambition behind the newly named and still incomplete Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail recalls the big dreams of railroad barons: An unbroken route all the way across Washington state. North Bend, 1 hour from Seattle | Unpaved Trail, Historic Tunnels Just across I-90, Gold Creek Sno-Park boasts a classic and mellow snowshoe route to Gold Creek Pond, free of avalanche danger.Ĭycle the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail But Hyak, just east of the downhill ski areas at Snoqualmie Pass, offers gravity-based thrills on its groomed sledding hill, helpfully fenced off at its base to halt runaway toboggans. The state’s more than 120 Sno-Parks, administered by the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, mostly serve as plowed parking lots for snowmobilers. Snoqualmie Pass, 1 hour from Seattle | Sledding Hill, Nordic Ski Trails Hike Umatilla Rock for five miles of close-ups of the Ice Age rock sculptures, and then take in the whole landscape from the Dry Falls Visitor Center perched on the canyon top. If we called Central Washington’s dramatic landscapes “canyons” instead of the geologically specific “coulee,” would they be as famous as their Utah counterparts? We’ll never know, so the red rock formations and deep chasms bake under reliable sun, next to swim-friendly lakes too big to get truly crowded. Overwhelmed at the ever-busy state park? Pack a kite and make like Mary Poppins. Winds flip up a bluff from Puget Sound, right at where it meets the Strait of Juan de Fuca, onto the fort’s old parade grounds, a massive lawn ringed by historic barracks and officers’ quarters. Among more than 400 acres-between the marine science and history museums, kayak rentals, art festivals, ghost-ridden army installations, and the restaurant inside an old military jail-sits the best kite-flying lawn in the state. Port Townsend, 2.25 hours from Seattle | Museums, Vacation Houses, RestaurantsĪnyone bored at Fort Worden is a hopeless case. Fly a Kite at Fort Worden Historical State Park Naturalists from nonprofit Puget Sound Estuarium sometimes interpret the intertidal for visitors. Crouching muscles get a workout as you peer at anemones waving in the microcurrents, and crabs scurry underfoot across the kelp as sand dollars blanket the beach like polka dots. When the tide’s out at Tolmie State Park, a patchwork of saltwater pools teem with sea life. But when it starts to get really steep, leave it to the daredevils with ropes. Head west (left as you face the hillside) on the trail for the most solid footpath through the dramatic landscape. Even empty of cliff clingers, though, the pinnacles are a remarkable sight. The climbers who tackle the sandstone and mixed rock brave aging bolts driven into the rock and notoriously crumbly crags, all under intense sun. Fearful of liability, landowners closed access in 1986, and it was off-limits until the state purchased the land several years later. The lumps of rock earned names like Martian Tower and Donald Duck Rock, but in 1978 a crooked spire called the Trigger Finger snapped at its rocky knuckle. These sandstone formations, sandwiched by fruit orchards and a draw for midcentury climbers, were once privately owned. The footpaths that wind around the rocky monuments are made by climbers eager to get vertical, so they’re nowhere as gentle as real hiking routes. The Peshastin Pinnacles trails are literally a step above.
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