Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
2
Planning Your Trip
to Washington
P
lanning your trip before you leave home can make all the difference between
enjoying your vacation and wishing you'd stayed home. In fact, for many people,
planning a trip is half the fun of going. If you're one of those people, then this
chapter should prove useful. When should I go? What is this trip going to cost
me? Can I catch a festival during my visit? Where should I head to pursue my
favorite sport? These are just some of the questions we'll answer for you in this
chapter. Additionally, you can contact information sources listed below to find
out more about Washington and to take a look at photos (whether in brochures
or on the Web) that are certain to get you excited about your upcoming trip.
1 The Regions in Brief
The state of Washington covers
68,139 square miles—roughly the
same area as all of New England.
Within this large area can be found
surprising geographical diversity,
including an inland sea dotted with
hundreds of islands, temperate rain-
forests where rainfall is measured in
feet, an arid land of sagebrush and
junipers, several distinct mountain
ranges, volcanoes both dormant and
extinct, the West's most important
river, and, of course, hundreds of
thousands of acres of coniferous
forests (hence the state's nickname—
the Evergreen State).
Puget Sound
Puget Sound, a convo-
luted maze of waterways, is a vast
inland sea that stretches for more than
80 miles, from north of Seattle south
to Olympia. Created when glaciers
receded at the end of the last ice age,
Puget Sound is characterized by deep
waterways surrounded by hilly,
forested terrain. Because the Sound's
protected waters make such good
harbors and are so full of fish and shell-
fish, this area has been the most
densely populated region of the state
since long before the first Europeans
sailed into these waters. Today, the
eastern shore of the Sound has become
the largest metropolitan area in the
state—one huge Pugetopolis that
includes Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia,
and dozens of smaller cities and bed-
room communities. The western and
southernmost reaches of the Sound are
much less developed. These rural areas
are popular weekend escapes for Seat-
tleites and Tacomans but are much less
familiar to visitors from out of state,
who, though they might appreciate the
Sound and Rainier vistas, tend to over-
look this region because of its lack of
major attractions.
The San Juan Islands
Lying just to
the north of Puget Sound, the San
Juan Islands are a lush, mountainous
archipelago, home to orca whales, har-
bor seals, and bald eagles. Of the 175
or so named San Juan Islands, only
four are accessible by public ferry, and
of these only three—San Juan, Orcas,
and Lopez—have accommodations
(however, the 4th, Shaw, does have a
