Olympia
Chosen as Washington’s territorial capital in 1853 and state capital in 1889, liberal and laidback OLYMPIA has a neat, compact downtown area, though the most attractive part of the city lies just to the south in the Washington State Capitol Campus, littered with grand Neoclassical piles.
The Olympic Peninsula
Some thirty miles from Seattle, the far northwest corner of Washington State ends at the Olympic Peninsula, a largely untouched wilderness of great snow-capped peaks, tangled rainforests and the pristine beaches of the Pacific edge, as well as being home to eight Native American tribes. As every tween will inform you, this is also the moody, vampire-laced landscape of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series – though the films were mostly shot in Oregon, the books are set in Forks, just outside Olympic National Park. Fringed with logging communities such as this, it’s the magnificent national park where you should spend most of your time, with its superb hiking trails, campgrounds and lodges.
With its multicoloured mansions overlooking the water, convivial cafés and compact scale, PORT TOWNSEND is a handsome relic from the 1890s. Perched on the peninsula’s northeastern tip across from Whidbey Island, Port Townsend’s physical split – half on a bluff, half at sea level – reflects nineteenth-century social divisions, when wealthy merchants built their houses Uptown, far above the clamour of the working-class port below. The Downtown area lies at the base of the hill on Water Street, which sports an attractive medley of Victorian brick-and-stone commercial buildings, now home to restaurants, boutiques and especially, art galleries.
Fifty miles west of Port Townsend, PORT ANGELES is the most popular point of entry into Olympic National Park, a few miles to the south. Its harbour is backed by soaring mountains, but there are few reasons to linger at this workaday stopover – other than the town’s having the peninsula’s best transport links and the biggest choice of motels, supermarkets and cheap places to eat.
Magnificent OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK, comprising the colossal Olympic Mountains in the heart of the peninsula plus a separate, isolated sixty-mile strip of Pacific coastline farther west, is one of Washington’s prime wilderness destinations, with raging rivers, alpine meadows, sizeable tracts of moss-draped rainforest and boundless opportunities for spectacular hiking and wildlife watching. Black-tailed deer are fairly common and quite relaxed around people wielding cameras; black bears, Roosevelt elk and cougars are rarer to spot.
Around 95 percent of the park is designated wilderness and inaccessible by car; no roads go through the middle but instead enter the interior from its edge like spokes on a wheel. Get oriented and check latest conditions at the main visitor centre in Port Angeles before driving seventeen miles (one way) up to Hurricane Ridge, which at 5242ft affords mesmerizing views of the jagged peaks and sparkling mountain glaciers around Mount Olympus (7980ft), the park’s highest point (its peak is only accessible to professional mountaineers).
The San Juan Islands
North and west of Whidbey Island, midway between Seattle and Vancouver, Canada, the unspoiled SAN JUAN ISLANDS are scattered across the northern reaches of Puget Sound, with plenty of small-town charm, culinary treats and killer whales offshore. Every summer brings lots of visitors, especially on the largest islands, San Juan and Orcas, so you’re well advised to book your stay and transport in advance. Ferries depart Anacortes on the mainland, eighty miles north of Seattle, where you can also catch services to Sidney in Canada.
Orcas Island
Horseshoe-shaped ORCAS ISLAND offers a bucolic getaway with rugged hills that tower over its fetching farm country, craggy beaches and abundant wildlife. The island’s highlight is Moran State Park off Horseshoe Highway southeast of Eastsound (the main island settlement), where more than thirty miles of hiking trails wind through dense forest and open fields to freshwater lakes and to the summit of Mount Constitution – the San Juans’ highest point at 2409ft – crowned with a medieval-style stone observation tower.
San Juan Island
SAN JUAN ISLAND is best known as the site of, at the southern tip, San Juan Island National Historical Park, where the American Camp (360 378 2902, nps.gov/sajh), once played a role in the so-called “Pig War”, a rather absurd 1859 border confrontation between the USA and Britain (no shots were fired, and the island was officially ceded to the USA in 1872). More appealing is English Camp, to the west (same entry as American Camp), where forests overlook rolling fields and maple trees near the shore, and four buildings from the 1860s and a small formal garden have been restored.
Friday Harbor is a small and attractive resort village with cafés, shops and a waterfront that make for pleasant wandering. Its small Whale Museum, 62 First St N (whalemuseum.org), has a set of whale skeletons and displays explaining their migration and growth cycles, as well as a listening booth for whale and other cetacean songs. To see the real thing, head past the coves and bays on the island’s west side to Lime Kiln Point State Park, 6158 Lighthouse Rd, named after the site’s former lime quarry. Orca (“killer”) whales come here in summer to feed on migrating salmon, and there’s usually at least one close sighting a day.