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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 .
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BELLINGHAM - a happy blend of industry, Victorian architecture and
college-town liveliness - runs ten miles along a broad curve of
Bellingham Bay
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The trim resort of CHELAN , some sixty miles south of Winthrop,
nestles at the foot of Lake Chelan, a spectacular lake set in a
glacially-carved trough
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If you're traveling by Greyhound east of the Cascade Mountains along
I-90, your first major stop will be ELLENSBURG , a dusty little town
with fetching
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Beyond the Sol Duc turnoff, US-101 cuts across Olympic National
Forest to dreary FORKS , a logging burg nestled between the Olympic
Mountains
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A few miles south of Chelan, the Cascade Loop turns west along US-2
at Wenatchee , the drab center of Washington's embattled apple industry
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Just a muddy little logging community when picked as Washington's
territorial capital in 1853, OLYMPIA has never really become the
metropolis
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Originally named "Puerto de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles" by the
Spanish in 1791 (the postal service later insisted one Los Angeles was
enough),
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With its brightly painted Victorian mansions, convivial cafés and
vigorous cultural scene, PORT TOWNSEND has always had aspirations beyond
its small-time
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Curved around the shore of Elliott Bay, with Lake Washington behind
and the snowy peak of Mount Rainier hovering faintly in the distance,
SEATTLE
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The wide-open spaces and drab little towns of eastern Washington
don't prepare you for SPOKANE ("spo-CAN"). A few miles from the Idaho
border,
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It's hard to avoid passing through TACOMA on the main
SeattlePortland route. In recent years, though, the massive Tacoma Dome
has become
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WALLA WALLA , about 120 miles east of Yakima along I-82 and US-12,
is an uneventful college and agricultural town, known best for its sweet
onions
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The agricultural hub of YAKIMA is rather tough terrain: the railroad
yard is pretty much its aesthetic high point. It is an excellent base to
visit the
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