Olympia

The capital of the State is the southernmost port of Puget Sound. The district of Tumwater was the first American establishment on Puget Sound, in 1845. Do not forget to taste the excellent small oysters of Olympia.

Olympic National Park

The wet tropical forest of Hoh, less than three hours away fromSeattle, deploys fir trees and cedars as high as 90 meters, draped with moss, gardens of ferns, plants with chatoyant flowers and mushroom carpets.

It is one of the top-places of the park's 5.000 km² , which occupies most of the Olympic peninsula, between the Pacific and Puget Sound.

The average of precipitations is 3,69 meters there per year.

In the south of the Pacific Coast of the Olympic Peninsula, you will approach an area of seaside resorts, golf courses and the long ones and vast beaches; you will be able also there to rent a boat and to fish salmon.

In Grayland, you will taste clams; in Long Beach, kilometers of splendid sands await you, and in Ocean Shores, Tokeland and Willapa Bay, you will be able to do a tour on motorcycle, dune-buggy or quite simply sunbathing on the beach.

Seattle

Seattle is the largest city of the State and the largest port of the West coast. To have the best point of view, go up at the top of Space Needle. Take the monorail of the centre town to Seattle Center. An elevator will take you along to the top of this 180 m high observation terrace.

Visit the quays, Pike Place Market, and the historical district of Pioneer Square. Interesting museums: Pacific Center Science and Marine Aquarium.

The Seattle Air Museum with its new house named “Personal Courage” allows you to admire 28 fighters, rare restored parts, dating from the two World Wars.

Coming from the two camps, they make it possible to the visitors to compare the technological advances and the evolution of the fighters. Among the exposed planes are Fokker Triplane and an Albatross dating from the First World War and, dating from Second World War, the famous P-38 Lightning, Messerschmitt Bf 109 as well as the Soviet plane Yak-9U, the single specimen present on the American continent.

After having visited the centreville of Seattle, leave to discover the neighbouring districts, quite as different one another.

Ballard, founded by Scandinavian immigrants more than a hundred years ago, preserves its Scandinavian heritage thanks to its museum Nordic Heritage, the only museum of this kind in the United States.

Many locks are also to visit in this district.

Capitol Hill, the chic and trendy district where young, tattooed and pierced people cohabit with rich businessmen who buy the ancient houses, is equipped with one of the prettiest parks, Volunteer Park, as well as a splendid museum of Asian Art.

It is in the middle of International District, emblem of the Asian culture, where you will be able to taste various kitchens and to visit many specialized stores.

Fremont is the new trendy district. Its many murals which decorate the buildings, its sculptures, and its shops of another time give to Fremont this funky character.

In the north of Seattle, between North Cascades and Rosario Strait, lies a marvellous and very frequented coast. Secondary roads will lead you to the mountain or to the countryside.

The ferry boat of Anacortes (124 km in the North-West of Seattle) crosses the archipelago of San Juan Islands and goes until Sidney, in British Columbia.

If you wish to carry out a one day excursion from Seattle, why don't you discover Kitsap, the fatherland of the Indian tribe of Suquamish and the chief Indien Seattle which gave its name to the city. After a 35 minutes crossing in ferry, you will cross the island and the bridge Agate Pass in direction of Suquamish. You will arrive then at the tomb of the Indian Chief, died in 1866, a stone monument surrounded by the traditional dugouts, located in the top of the hill. Going further towards Poulsbo, stands the Museum of the Suquamish Indian Tribe, named by the Smithsonian as the best tribal museum on the North-western coast of the USA.

Tacoma

Mount Rainier National Park

Mount Rainier National Park lies about two and a half hous away in the south-east of Seattle, offering you hundreds of kilometers of panoramic roads. The park has the greatest glacial system of the United States, localised on a single top, Mount Rainier, elevating to 4,391 m high. The road of the Chinook collar leads to the immense glacier Emmons, of almost 10 km long.

Grand Coulee Dam

Some 250 km in the east of Mount Rainier and not far from Spokane, the Grand Coulee Dam, high of 168 meters, allows to regularize the flow of Columbia River. It forms the Lake Roosevelt, of 248 km long.

Photos : Washington State Tourism
Don Wilson