Seattle Environs: Places to Explore

Adorable Arlington, as picturesque as early Americana can be, is surrounded by pastures, woods, and the rich farmlands of the Stillaguamish River plain. On sunny days the skies above the local airfield... Read more

Nearly surrounded by water, and with one of the largest Navy bases on the West Coast, Bremerton is a green city of colorful residential homes fronted by a wide bay lined with massive warships. Attractions... Read more

Charming Edmonds has a waterfront lined by more than a mile of boutiques and restaurants, seaside parks and attractions, and a string of broad, windswept beaches. Just beyond is the small but lively downtown... Read more

Everett is the county seat of Snohomish County. Much of this industrial town sits high on a bluff above Port Gardner Bay and the Snohomish River. The waterfront was once lined by so many lumber, pulp... Read more

One of the most picturesque and accessible waterfront cities on Puget Sound, Gig Harbor has a neat, circular bay dotted with sailboats and fronted by hills of evergreens and million-dollar homes. Expect... Read more

Index, which has fewer than 200 residents, illustrates one of the anomalies of western Washington geography; the village lies only 500 feet above sea level, yet looks like a remote alpine settlement. That's... Read more

This truck stop gets its name from a bend in the Snoqualmie River, which here turns toward Canada. The gorgeous surrounding scenery is dominated by 4,420-foot Mt. Washington, 4,788-foot Mt. Tenerife, and... Read more

Olympia has been the capital of Washington since 1853, the beginning of city and state. It is small for the capital city of a major state, but that makes it all the more pleasant to visit. The old and... Read more

Residents from the opposite side of America founded Port Gamble around a sawmill in 1853; hence its New England-style architecture mimicking founder Capt. William Talbot's hometown of East Machias, Maine... Read more

Velkommen til Poulsbo (pauls-bo), an endlessly charming village on lovely Liberty Bay. Soon after it was settled by Norwegians in the 1880s, shops and bakeries sprang up along Front Street, as did a cod-drying... Read more

Set before the towering forests and snowfields of Mt. Rainier is Puyallup (pyoo-al-lup), one of western Washington's oldest towns. Founder Ezra Meeker came west on the Oregon Trail in 1806-07, and he returned... Read more

The industrial city of Renton, at the southern end of Lake Washington, has an old, refurbished downtown and a public library dramatically built on a bridge across the Cedar River. However, according to... Read more

Snohomish is an undeniably quaint and quiet residential town. First Street is the center of the historic district, where elegant 19th-century buildings now house shops, restaurants, and small inns. Dutch... Read more

Spring and summer snowmelt turn the Snoqualmie (sno-qual-mie) River into a thundering torrent at Snoqualmie Falls, the sweeping cascades that provided the backdrop for the Twin Peaks opening montage. The... Read more

Tacoma is coming into its own, having in the last decade blossomed into a very livable city that has good museums, an edgy arts scene, and attractive old suburbs. It's a broad, hilly city whose clean-cut... Read more