Hiking is high on the list of PNW pastimes. It’s a great excuse to explore the mountains and enjoy every bit of the natural beauty that Washington State has to offer. Peak hiking season in Washington tends to run from late Spring through summer, as the snow melts and the temperatures get warmer. However my personal favorite is a short window of a few weeks in early Autumn– larch season. Larches are a variety of trees that may at first glance resemble a typical pine, but larches do not stay green year-round. Unlike their evergreen neighbors, larch tree needles turn a beautiful golden yellow color in the early fall. For two to three weeks at the end of September until the first snows in October, the Pacific Northwest is blessed with beautiful variation in the forests as those golden yellow pine trees reach peak color. It’s a short window before the trees begin to lose their pine needles as temperatures drop, so you don’t want to miss out on the annual larch madness.
Washington Trails Association is a nonprofit that mobilizes hikers and everyone who loves the outdoors to explore, steward and champion trails and public lands. We do that in a number of ways. Through our website, we help hikers find the information they need to have safe and fun hiking experiences. We empower hikers to be strong advocates for public lands and the trails we love. We mobilize volunteers year round to get out on trail and give back to the places they love. We also publish a quarterly magazine for our members — in fact, WTA actually started more than 50 years ago as a newsletter.
The Pacific Northwest is a hotbed for climbing and mountaineering. Climbing is growing in exposure as a hobby and at the elite level even though it’s been a sport since the early days of the post-World War II era and the Stonemasters of Yosemite in the 1970s.
Climbing will be in the Olympics for the first time in Tokyo 2020. What you won’t see on TV is the time these climbers spend working on their mobility and strength outside of the actual act of climbing.
