comments:
Sept is perfect! Roads have been closing in the mountains by Oct 1 in recent years...there isn't a LOT of snow, but manpower is diminished for managing it so the roads just close. Buy a national parks pass (annual) when you enter the first park. This will cover all federal lands. For state parks, you need a Discover Pass, buy ahead of your trip: https://discoverpass.wa.gov For North Cascades, are you aware of the Institute? https://ncascades.org Worth looking at their activities to see if anything aligns with your visit. I think you should continue to research to narrow down whatever your second option will be. Either Olympic peninsula, or a Rainier centered option. On the Rainier front, I would suggest Packwood as a place to stay. It has a friendly small ski/hiking town feel and is 12 miles from the park. You would be entering via highway 123 and can then go all the way to Cayuse Pass and then turn left to go to Sunrise, turn right to go to Chinook Pass/Tipsoo Lake. And midway along 123 is the Stevens Canyon entrance which will take you by Box Canyon, Narada Falls and on to Reflection Lakes, up the road to Paradise, and down to Longmire. If you feel adventurous, from Packwood you can drive highway 12 to Randal and drive to Windy Ridge at Mt St Helens. That is a lot of driving, but I try to take my visitors for a day there because even after 45 years, the blowdown/pyroclastic zone is pretty mindblowing. And going that route, you drive through 10 mikes of the blowdown zone. So....2 days in Rainier, 1 day at MSH as a possibility. You wouldn't have LONG hikes on this schedule, but enough time to fit in some shorter ones and time to just sit and marinate in the beauty 😊 If you're a reader and you add MSH to your itinerary, I recommend this book as a good read ahead of your visit: https://a.co/d/08GGYHW3(it's often just a dollar or two used) If you stay North, Sequim (pronounced Sqwim) might be a place to stay. You can drive the North coast, go up to Hurricane Ridge (Olympic NP), and visit some state parks like Fort Worden in Townsend (famous as the filming location for An Officer and a Gentleman). You can also visit Cape Flattery, but be sure to buy a Makah tribe pass ($20) when you enter tribal lands...there are signs. The Makah museum is very much worth visiting as well. Whatever you do, if you're coming for natural beauty, skip Tacoma lol. You'd also be traversing daily commute traffic and planning your whole day around that.