WASHINGTON STATE is home to five major composite volcanoes, including three clustered in its southwest corner: Mounts Rainier, St. Helens, and Adams.
Mount Adams’ South Spur climb has awesome views of Rainier, and is the site where Kenneth Arnold witnessed an event that inspired the term “flying saucer” in 1947.
Mount Rainier is home to the Grove of the Patriarchs, a park filled with ancient 300-foot-tall trees near one of the rumored homes of Bigfoot himself. The 1935 Olympic downhill ski team held tryouts at Rainier’s Paradise Inn. Remnants of the forest that surrounded Spirit Lake before Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980 now float on the lake’s surface.
The Vintage Motorcycle Museum (antiquemotorcycles.net) features pre-1916 American hogs and a bike ridden by the King of Cool, Steve McQueen. At the Chehalis-Centralia Railroad & Museum (steamtrainride.com), you can ride over vintage railroad bridges on the Cowlitz, Chehalis & Cascade No. 15, a traditional steam-powered locomotive that turns 96 this year.
What is said to be the world’s largest steam whistle resides in Longview.
Quaint, artsy Kalama’s Marine Park is home to a 140-foot-tall totem pole—one of the Pacific Northwest’s largest. —JESSIE WESLEY
Read More About The Volcanoes
There are as many ways to experience Mount Rainier as there are seasons in a year.
Don't Miss
Mount Rainier looms in the distance, but that's not what has 14-year-old Garrison's attention.
Approach from the west and you parallel the Toutle River, proceeding uphill through an orderly progression of visitors centers and overlooks that end at Toutle's Johnston Ridge Observatory.
From our Archives
FOR MANY WASHINGTONIANS, May 18, 1980, is a day that will forever echo across their memories. It was on that morning, at 8:32, that an earthquake caused the north face of Mount St. Helens to collapse,
Mount Rainier National Park displays year-round wonders.
The Columbia River Gorge is a stunner.
Exploring Vancouver offers timeless fun.
WASHINGTON STATE is home to five major composite volcanoes, including three clustered in its southwest corner: Mounts Rainier, St. Helens, and Adams.
SUMMITING THE LOWER 48s tallest glaciatedpeak: Mount Rainier.
THE IDEA OF WALKING into a volcano sounded strange to begin with, but when somebody told me Id need a jacket to stay warm, I had to check it out.
AFTER THE ERUPTION of Mount St. Helens in May 1980, then-president Jimmy Carter observed that the devastation made the moon look like a golf course.
AFTER MONTHS of winter, the splashes of color that highlight Northwest landscapes bring an April that is downright irresistible.
The stars look like diamonds on black velvet from the mountain.
Some 2,000-plus farms make theirhomes in Lewis and Cowlitz Counties.Fryer chickens are raised here in abundance,but what may be most prolific arethe delectables the forests produce.
Up high in the North Cascades, night and forest shroud my group in near-darkness. Just enough ambient light remains to toss snowballs a playful salute from one species hoping to communicate with another.
Mount Rainierthe Lower 48s mostglaciated peak and an active volcanolooms large ... and not just because of its14,410-foot height. Here are five ways toexperience pure wonder on and aroundits slopes.
PART OF THE FUN of visiting Mount St. Helensthe craggy volcanic mountain that famously blew its top in 1980is getting there.
The volcanoes of Washington have served as training ground for some of the most accomplished mountaineers in the world.
The hike to Camp Muir on 14,410-foot Mount Rainier is one of the most spectacular in the Northwest.
Find Out More
Please visit our Tourism Partners
Cowlitz County Tourism
360-577-3137
Lewis County Convention & Visitor Bureau
800-525-3323
Skamania County Chamber of Commerce
800-989-9178