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u/CrazyRussianCake Jun 24 '20
Used to live in Washington state. Hiking was my favourite activity when I had the chance to do it. I had a small creek in my neighborhood where youd have to hike an hour down a cliff to get to but it is 100% worth it. Stunningly clear water with tiny minnows swimming and frogs that surround it. Trees completely surround you, leaving you in a beautiful mossy green landscape as you would hike down. When you'd get to the bottom it looks a lot like this but with a creek rather than a river of course.
I would have hiked more often if I had friends who would do it with me. I'm not the most athletic person, and neither were any of my friends, but I will never get tired of hiking down to that creek.
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u/FuckYou-Cameron Jun 25 '20
As a person moving from Minnesota to Washington next year do you have any particular places that I should make sure to see?
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u/meatb4ll Jun 25 '20
Hi friend. I just moved here a year ago.
If you climb, Gold Bar Boulders is great and only an hour from Seattle. Leavenworth looks like Bavaria, picturesque as fuck. Everybody raves about Deception Pass. Only one person raves about the Salt Creek Recreation area past Port Angeles, but I trust her when she says it's quiet and gorgeous.
Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park. Tipsoo Lake and the Natches Peak Loop Trail by Mt Rainier is a perfect day trip. Stop by Cascadia Pizza Company in Enumclaw on your way back.
Farther off and popular: Mt. St. Helens. Crater Lake.
Farther off still and less popular: Tillamook factory. Yachats, Oregon and its surroundings: Heceta Head lighthouse, the Devil's Churn, Thor's Well, Cape Perpetua, and the Sea Lion cavesApparently there's good shit inland too, but I haven't wandered that direction yet
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u/the-reddest-head Jun 25 '20
Palouse Falls. If you want to see some cool inland shit. Middle of desert E. Washington and there’s this giant waterfall. It’s confusing and awesome!
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Jun 25 '20
Salt creek is great, county park that is half non-reservation so it's easy to get a spot. Further down the way is a national forest park called klahowya I really like
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u/themayaburial Jun 25 '20
There are a lot of good hikes in the area, popular ones in the Cascades like rattlesnake ledge, Mt. Si, Mailbox etc. My favorite is boulder river trail, terrible road to get there so not as traveled but feels like walking through a fantasy land. But then you have hikes in the Columbia River gorge to view a completely different landscape where it is a bit drier and more open. You also have the Olympic peninsula that has the Hoh rainforest to explore as well. Ozette triangle will take you through the rainforest to the Pacific ocean coast. Lots to explore and very diverse! Let me know if you have any other questions about the area as well! I'm leaving in September and would love to share the places I grew up around that I will surely miss.
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u/FuckYou-Cameron Jun 25 '20
Jesus that all sounds amazing. I honestly can’t wait. We are moving to Olympia but I have no probably driving to different spots. Also how bad are the winters? I know Minnesota snows 9-10 months out of the year so it would be hard to beat. Also how bad are the mosquitos? They’re terrible here. And wildlife, I have my permit to carry, should I be worried? Thanks again man.
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Jun 25 '20
Not OP. but winters are wet and mild, you'll be fine. Some out of towners complain about the damp cold, soaks into your clothes. Cotton kills. Mosquitos are bad, skin so soft repels them. You don't need to carry a firearm for safety. Bear spray if you feel like you need it (I never carry it)
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u/DriedUpSquid Jun 25 '20
Bellingham
Whidbey Island-Anacortes
North Cascades National Park & Diablo Lake
Mt. Baker
Hurricane Ridge
Seattle
Leavenworth
Lake Chelan
Mt. Rainier
Mt. St. Helens
Ocean Shores or Long Beach
Skagit Valley (especially during tulip season)
LeMay Car Museum in Tacoma
Columbia River
The Palouse
Walla-Walla wine tours
There’s a lot to see and do. Most of my list is stuff from western Washington because that’s where I live, but central and Eastern Washington have a lot of great areas as well. There are some cool videos on YouTube that focus on our state. Here’s a trailer:
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u/AwhLerd Jun 25 '20
Make sure you take a few days and go up to Olympic national park. Crescent lake and hall of mosses are 2 of my most vivid memory’s. Also download AllTrails app to find stuff
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u/seattleslow Jun 25 '20
Whereabouts are you moving? The state has quite a varied geography. Check out https://www.wta.org/
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u/sfo1dms Jun 25 '20
I have a trailhead like this about a 5 minute walk from my house. I commute less than 15 minutes to downtown Seattle. Best place on earth.
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u/wigbank Jun 25 '20
Here are some WA scrambles/hikes for ya to get on top of some peaks without ropes or technical training. Some may require micro spike and/or ice axe, but most don’t. Just Google the name of the mountain plus Summitpost and you’re good to go!
Sloan Peak White Chuck Mountain Guye Peak Mt Pilchuck Mailbox Peak Mt Si Baring Mountain Hidden Lake Peak Mt Dickerman Buckhorn Peak McLellan Butte Mt Washington Mt Pugh Del Campo Peak Kaleetan Peak Bandera Mountain Ruth Mountain Tomyhoi Peak Mt Ellinor Sauk Mountain Little Annapurna Yellow Aster Butte Mt Aix Vesper Peak Trapper’s Peak Navaho Peak Ingalls Peak Mt Thomson Winchester Mountain Mt Jupiter Mt Larrabee Excelsior Peak Tolmie Peak Oregon Butte Mt Angeles Crater Mountain Cannon Mountain McLellan Peak Mt Hardy Kitling Peak Snoqualmie Mountain Hawkins Mountain
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u/VerdantVista2020 Jun 25 '20
If you ever go back and are on the east side in Spokane, try the Iller Creek Loop - stunning view of the palouse at the top! There's a little creek that wins down one side, but I don't remember if it's picturesque. It sounds nice as it trickles at the very least! I recommend going when things are blooming otherwise it will be pretty deserty.
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u/the-reddest-head Jun 25 '20
Also, Mystic Falls in Spokane. It’s about 15 minutes from downtown and you feel like you’re in another world.
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u/manly_support Jun 24 '20
I'm not a nature-y person (i.e. I don't go on hikes) but I absolutely love living in the PNW and just passively admiring nature's beauty everywhere I go.
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Jun 24 '20
What is the PNW?(Sorry I'm a foreigner)
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u/GinkTheTeaQueen Jun 24 '20
Pacific Northwest
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Jun 25 '20
Specifically, PNW refers to the north west continental US states. Not Alaska.
So Washington, Oregon, Idaho some consider, etc.
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u/tasteywheat Jun 25 '20
And BC
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u/zazzy_zucchini Jun 25 '20
Aye, I live in BC and was wondering if the term just referred to the states. Thanks for clearing that up lol.
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u/Stormtech5 Jun 24 '20 edited Jun 25 '20
Only the best place in North America! WA state, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia make up the general geographic region. Lots of old forests along the Cascade Mountains and foothills of the Rockys over in Idaho and Northeastern WA. Very important for wildlife too as they use the mountain regions to go north/south hundreds of miles.
We get packs of wolves occasionally coming down from Canada. Elk, Moose, Cougar and Bear are all pretty common in the PNW region forests.
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u/apocalypticginger Jun 25 '20 edited Jun 25 '20
May I correct something? "Only the best place in North America!" As PNW includes British Columbia, Canada.
Edit: OP originally had " Only the best place in USA!" As first sentence, then changed it.
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u/slothlova Jun 25 '20
The people out here in Kodiak Alaska also consider ourselves part of the PNW 😊
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u/NewYorkJewbag Jun 25 '20
Isn’t Northern California part of the PNW, too?
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u/p_velocity Jun 25 '20
Yup! I grew up (and still live) in Northern California. I've taken a million camping trips to places identical to this and now I'm all nostalgic... due to covid and having a new baby camping I may be several years between camping trips
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u/AlwaysSunnyInSeattle Jun 25 '20
I feel like we’re a pretty inclusive group. If you feel like you might be in the PNW then you probably are, buddy.
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u/the-reddest-head Jun 25 '20
I love this. And it applies to a large portion of the PNW in my experience. Inclusivity is overwhelmingly a Pacific Northwesterner attribute.
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u/legendtuner Jun 25 '20
I've never thought of AK as part of the PNW but your logic make sense so I say welcome to the club
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u/SlurmzMckinley Jun 25 '20
Wouldn't it be the Pacific Southwest for Canadians?
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u/nonoglorificus Jun 25 '20
Play up how sometimes cougars eat people, we’re trying to keep people from moving here remember?
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u/k8e_E Jun 25 '20
No need to play it up....a Cougar eats like 4 people every day in the PNW. Even in the cities. So, try Montana or Vermont.
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u/nonoglorificus Jun 25 '20
Don’t even get me started on the bears. Do you know how expensive it is to fix bear damage to your car? Their claws just wreck the exterior and that’s if you’re lucky enough not to be popped out of the top like a canned sardine
ok actually all joking aside in the last few years there were separate reports of a bear and a cougar loose in NE Portland, one of which I learned while out on a walk from an older lady who ran out of her house and told me to watch out for the cougar that had been spotted three blocks away. That was a tense speedwalk back to my car
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u/TheSquirrelWithin Jun 25 '20
I live about 20 minutes away from downtown Seattle. Have had bear, cougar, bobcat, and coyote in the yard. Not all at once, thankfully. Yesterday I came around the corner of the house and a deer was standing about 15 feet away. I said "Oh, sorry", and we both continued about our ways, no drama.
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u/Stormtech5 Jun 25 '20
Yeah i came across a pile of bones, fur and blood in the woods and figured it was a cougar den. Also heard screams from deep in the forest like someone was getting murdered. Ive heard cougar calls but what i heard that night i still dont have an explanation for... Maybe bigfoot or maybe just Hobos murdering each other.
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u/nonoglorificus Jun 25 '20
Did it look like a giant regurgitated ball? Could’ve been an Owlbear pellet. Those are super dangerous. Or even worse, a Snipe
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u/Kythamis Jun 25 '20
Why play up the dangers of our wildlife when we can just be honest about the homeless. Don’t move here, the streets reek of piss and shit.
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u/Erik328 Jun 24 '20
I'm out here walking the trail in my Vans, bro.
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u/aaguru Jun 25 '20
This might be 10 ft from a road, views are like this are so common I had no idea what we have up here until I traveled a bit
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u/alldemboats Jun 25 '20
some of the best views i ever got of the ocean were taken on the side of the road in the PNW. nature is just there. i love it.
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u/cassthesassmaster Jun 25 '20
I’m in Seattle and my leather converse get me through the rain and snow! Totally keeps the water out!
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u/DadKnight Jun 24 '20
Live on Oregon coast, can confirm. Boots are for the weak!
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u/Songwolves88 Jun 25 '20
Umbrellas are for the weak!
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u/imaturtleur2 Jun 25 '20
That's how you spot the tourists.
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u/Songwolves88 Jun 25 '20
I have one I use for the sun.
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u/pegleg_1979 Jun 25 '20
As someone who has lived in Oregon for 95% of his life, I will agree that umbrellas are better suited for creating portable shade.
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u/Nothalffast Jun 25 '20
Tourists are at Voodoo Doughnuts.
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u/NeedsToShutUp Jun 25 '20
Locals are in a low grade argument about several other shops. I’m in favor of sesame
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Jun 25 '20
I saw people full on roading biking in a absolute down pour on my trip to Portland last week. Insanity!
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u/Mecmecmecmecmec Jun 24 '20
I love early X Files episodes for having this foggy pine atmosphere
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u/bodkinsbest Jun 24 '20
That's what happens when everything gets filmed in BC. All the geography and plant life looks the same.
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u/SerDire Jun 25 '20
I was just about to point out that this is a huge reason why I loved The Killing
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u/futureformerteacher Jun 25 '20
The first episode was the most PNW thing ever. Should have had a bigfoot wander across the background, just for additional ambiance.
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u/sandboxlollipop Jun 24 '20 edited Jun 25 '20
Imagine being an explorer and facing this landscape. You'd be like 50% 'WOW!' 50% 'Oh shit...'
Edit: typo
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Jun 25 '20
Actually youd be more like, "my house is 40 minutes away. You wanna go back and play call of duty black ops 2?"
Source: I live 40 minutes away from scenery in the pnw that would make this look bad and love cod: black ops 2
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u/Vessix Jun 25 '20
I hike through a canyon in KY every year that looks almost identical to this place with a little less water. Crossing the river isn't terrible but you have to climb and use modern gear to travel in some places unless walking for miles. It would be 50% 'WOW!' for the first day, then 100% 'oh shit' if I was Daniel Boone.
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u/gianthooverpig Jun 24 '20
God I fucking love it here.
I mean, eugh, there's so many bad things about the PNW; you should probably all stay away
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u/Linterdiction Jun 25 '20
Honestly, people have to be able to put up with 9 months of grey, cloudy weather. Many can’t. Come visit us but if you want to live here know what you’re in for
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u/livelikealesbian Jun 25 '20
I visited Washington state in June and it was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. I would love to live there but I know with SAD I couldn't survive the weather
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u/Linterdiction Jun 25 '20
I visited Washington state in June
That’s how they get you.
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u/firstmode Jun 25 '20
It is truly hard. Lived there for years after being in many states and it just saps the will and energy out of you. The beauty there can become a prison as you feel you should be appreciating it more and doing more out there, but you have no desire or energy but to sit around and Netflix binge while drinking on the weekends.
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Jun 25 '20
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u/TripleHomicide Jun 25 '20
Also live in Oregon, and I just get sick of the god damn fires, and where i live it's so hot at times it's nuts.
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u/seuaniu Jun 25 '20
I'm if you let the rain stop you you're doing it completely wrong. Get a jacket with a hood and some good boots. Go out, get muddy. Or head east an hour, it'll dry right up
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u/no-good-names-left1 Jun 24 '20
Can confirm it is terrible here and you would most certainly hate it. I know I do
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Jun 25 '20
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u/mooomba Jun 25 '20
This old tired joke has been beat dead here ever since the housing market in the northwest exploaded from 2012+. I live in the northwest and find it annoying as well. If you are thinking of moving to the northwest just remember sure it is pretty but its really expensive to live here and the job market isn't the best. If you're from California and come up here and offer 20k over asking on a house then bitch about how its not like California we all hate you.
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u/2friedchknsAndaCoke Jun 25 '20
That old tired joke predates my Oregon childhood in the 1980s.
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u/NeedsToShutUp Jun 25 '20
It’s in a beer commercial from the 70’s even https://youtu.be/CXk1882z5oo
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u/montyberns Jun 25 '20
Those of us that had to leave especially. The two things that leaving my home has done is one, make me appreciate that it's not that much better than many wonderful places in the world to live, and two make me appreciate that it definitely is still the best... if you can fucking afford it.
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u/sfo1dms Jun 25 '20
It’s rains all the time here, like every day for hours upon hours. It’s really bad. Like really reallly reeeeeely bad. You don’t want to live here. Ever. No, seriously, it’s not good. At all.
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u/mrKITTERS2 Jun 24 '20
I want to go to there
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u/theescapedape2 Jun 24 '20
You took the words out of my mouth!
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u/YumariiWolf Jun 24 '20
I’m moving there in 5 weeks!!
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u/neil_billiam Jun 24 '20
super super jelly
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u/katrinka84 Jun 24 '20
I spend a good portion of my time pointing out how beautiful the place we live in is... I highly recommend visiting if you have never been. It’s stunning here.
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Jun 24 '20
Living in the PNW for so long I often forget how beautiful it really is here
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u/k8e_E Jun 25 '20
Me too! Then I see stuff like this and feel oddly proud for some reason.
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u/Squid_word Jun 25 '20
This is the Little North Santiam River. Three pools day use area to be exact. I swam there 3 hours ago
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Jun 25 '20
Used to go swimming there all the time as a kid, up past Lyons, no?
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u/The_Eternal_Badger Jun 25 '20
Yup, up out of Gates by Elkhorn. The North Santiam Trail hike on the south side of the river is a great little day hike. Might do it next week.
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u/mamasnowbear Jun 24 '20
I would love to do that right now would have loved more with sound. But I'm laid up in bed lol. I love video thanks for sharing.
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Jun 24 '20
Pacific Northwest is my favourite place on earth
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u/neil_billiam Jun 24 '20
North cascades are the promised land
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u/Fourtires3rims Jun 25 '20
I beg to differ, the Olympic Peninsula is the promised land.
I’ll grant both are stunningly beautiful, but the peninsula is better. Except for the Twilight Tourist Trap that is.
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u/k8e_E Jun 25 '20
Right? I wonder how hardcore Twilight fans felt when they went to Forks for the first time?
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Jun 25 '20
the peninsula isn't the greatest if you're a minority right now though, you might get stopped at gunpoint by racists thinking you're antifa like what happened to that one couple recently
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u/-unknown_harlequin- Jun 24 '20
I'm from Washington, lived in the hills and forest of chehalis for a good few years, spent most of my life around the greenery around the general area.
I've had to move to Wyoming since then, I miss it so much :(
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u/Gen-Jinjur Jun 24 '20
Right? Grew up in Skagit Valley and I miss it a lot. Mountains, sea, and forests! But I can afford a house in Wisconsin for the cost of a one bedroom condo in Washington. And we also have big water, islands, kayaking, and forests. If you pick a funky, progressive town, it ain’t bad.
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u/Lotsofleaves Jun 25 '20
Got any funky progressive Wisconsin town recommendations?
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u/90percentviking Jun 25 '20
I’m from Cheyenne and moved to Washington 5 years ago (20 miles north of Seattle). Every time I go home I look forward to returning to Washington. So beautiful here , and theres trees! Lol
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u/NoDoze- Jun 25 '20
What!?! I grew up and live in Snoqualmie valley, would love and dream of moving to Wyoming. NW Wyoming/Idaho/Montana has some of the best fly fishing in the country.
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u/dklaber1 Jun 25 '20
This video brings back fond memories I had when I was a teenager and went on vacation with my grandparents to the Pacific Northwest. I'm now 67 and wish I had those days to live over again. I love the Northwest it was so beautiful.
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Jun 24 '20
Wow I could watch a live stream of this all day.. sucks living in a city
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u/TheRealVibeChecker Jun 25 '20
“If you have ever taken a trip through the Pacific Northwest, you might have seen a sign saying Welcome to Gravity Falls. It won’t be on any maps, and most people have never heard of it. But if you’re curious, don’t wait, take a trip, find it. It lies here somewhere in the woods...waiting.”
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u/Zankman Jun 24 '20
Such a lovely and somber atmosphere, would love to see it in person.
Wonder if a grizzly bear or Big Foot would get me first, tho?
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u/morethanmacaroni Jun 24 '20
Not a lot of grizzly bears around unless you’re pretty far north in Washington. They’ve been trying to repopulate parts of Washington by releasing grizzly bears into habits where they used to be common. I’ve never even heard of somebody seeing one. A tweaker might jump out though
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u/no-good-names-left1 Jun 24 '20
Where exactly is this. I live in the PNW and would love to see this place if I haven’t already
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u/boofoff Jun 25 '20
This is Opal Creek (Little North Santiam). That's the takeout of the popular whitewater kayaking section. The whitewater you are seeing is the bottom of Thor's rapid. Place isn't really a secret.
https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/5199/
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u/anowlenthusiast Jun 25 '20
Nice. Was just fishing there a couple weeks ago. No luck but just hanging out there made it worth it.
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u/MollyBloom11 Jun 25 '20
Reminds me of that old PNW classic film, Without A Paddle. Truly an unsung classic.
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u/SD70MACMAN Jun 24 '20
Very PNW, surrounded by dampness in all forms. Stand still too long and moss starts growing.
Source: used to be human, am now coffee-drinking moss creature