Washington Trails

This week's snowfall means danger will rise on Thursday.

A group of snowmobilers were having lunch last Sunday when the slide buried them.

The pair were reported missing last Sunday night amidst heavy snow.

The project aims to make 10 miles of trail along Lake Crescent at Olympic National Park universally accessible by 2019.

The best local trails, as selected by BACKPACKER Local scouts Anastasia Allison and Jason Bickford.

After huge demand overwhelmed the online system last month, a new vendor is ready for business Monday morning.

A mysterious wind event in January toppled more than 100 old-growth trees at Lake Quinault.

The reservation system opens March 15.

The men sold the bigleaf maple to a local music wood supplier.

Other climbers worked with dispatchers to save a fallen man for hours.

Get the best of the Pacific Northwest with a little help from Backpacker's trail experts.

Seven others were rescued after becoming stranded on Oregon's highest peak.

Chip Jenkins, a 31-year park service veteran, takes the helm.

More than 10,500 people tried for volcano climbing permit this year.

State Senator Kevin Ranker introduced the whale measure as part of his broader Salish Sea Protection package.

Precipitation and warm weather means the ski resort plans to temporarily shut down.

Repeat floods and rockslides have closed multiple roads into the national park in recent months.

Some areas will remain accessible while other services come to a halt.

Flooding from the Mt. St. Helens lake is unlikely, but consequences are high.

The ski resort's annual wife-carrying contest draws fierce competition.

Gov. Inslee toured the slow-moving slide outside Yakima.

Tracy Swartout takes the reins as acting superintendent of the national park this week.

This week's 3.9 earthquake rattled windows from Portland to Puget Sound.

Washington's sea star numbers are up in the aftermath of a four-year wasting syndrome epidemic.

Officials tried three times to tow a motorist out of deep snow on a remote wilderness road.

Locals fear the 6,500-strong Colockum Herd poses risks to drivers and ranchers.

Get the scoop on new visitor center and inn operating hours, plus winter ranger programs.

The animals broke free from their winter pasture and trotted through town before police helped round them up.

The 24-year-old died after falling off his sit-on-top boat.

The Trailhead Direct shuttle, which serves popular trailheads in the Issaquah area, attracted about 900 hikers in its debut season.

Smoke from this week's Southern California wildfires is riding a high-pressure system to the Northwest.

Seattle's closest resort is ready for winter.

November storms wiped out the Olympic National Park road for the second time in two years.

Santa and cookies add seasonal fun to the scenic train ride.

Flooding and a landslide have shuttered the Elwha Valley, Hoh Road, and Staircase Road.

Terence Garvin worked with Team Mission, which uses mountaineering as therapy.

The proposed changes would raise entrance fees to $70 at 17 super-popular national parks.

Women made up a huge part of The Mountaineers' Everett chapter from 1911 on.

The two Bellingham men disappeared from the Mt. Baker backcountry.

The Verlot pay phone has been used to call 911 25 times in the last two years.

A 21-year-old Oregon man fell while descending Mt. Storm King.

The 61-year-old is a ski historian, author, founder of Northwest Mountaineering Journal, and lifelong lover of the mountains.

Entrance fees are waived nationwide for Veterans Day, November 11 and 12.

The climber, guidebook author, environmentalist, and historian notched a long string of first ascents in his illustrious mountaineering career.

The popular Lake Serene Trail traverses through Weyerhauser property, and now they want to cash in.

Two hikers reported a vehicle in the parking lot after completing a hike on Sauk Mountain. Officials connected it to a missing man.

Two hikers on the PCT in Chelan County are safe.

The National Park Service is considering a fee hike in more than a dozen of the system's most popular parks.

Since August, eight people have been charged with 191 criminal counts in a huge poaching case in southeast Washington.

Olympic National Park awarded a $2.2-million contract to demolish and rebuild cabins at Log Cabin Resort.

Some 50,000 birds stop off here for winter nesting after flying in from Alaska or Siberia.

A series of reports show how far we've come in protecting salmon in the Northwest—and how far we still need to go.

REI just closed the deal on a $49.3 million property in Bellevue's Spring District—the future site of its headquarters.

A mass of warm water—known as "the blob"—has had lingering effects on numbers of juvenile salmon.

The population of mountain goats has gone from 20 to the thousands to 300 to 623 at last count. The NPS wants to airlift them out.

Rescuers recovered the body of a 32-year-old who fell near the middle falls.

More than two dozen small earthquakes shook Rainier this past week, but there's no need to worry, say seismologists.

After being closed because of fires, the White River and Sunrise areas of Mount Rainier National Park are now open again.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife captured a bear scratching his itch.

A dozen rabid bats were found this August on sidewalks and in homes and public parks in Washington, bring the yearly count to 21.

Though the Norse Peak Fire has mellowed, it's still too unpredictable to reopen Crystal.

Five whale species, the yellow-billed cuckoo bird, the loggerhead sea turtle, and the fisher are on Washington's endangered list.

Want a dose of pure beauty? Check out Anastasia Allison (scout, violin) and Rose Freeman (mountaineer, piano) performing summit "Ashokan Farewell."

The Valor Memorial honors four people who died in the park while saving others.

Check out BACKPACKER Contributors and Editors's author page.

The Norse Peak Fire has forced the closure of all the backcountry trails on the east side of Mount Rainier National Park.

Officials are asking anyone and everyone to catch as many fish as possible after devastating breach in a net that contained 305,000 salmon.

Nick Burson, 31, and Marc McPhereson, 43—both cops in Ellensburg—summitted Adams, St. Helens, Rainier, Baker and Glacier Peak in just five days.

Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington

Allison Macsas and Mallory Brooks complete 93 miles in 29 hours.

Want to bring home berries from the central and south Cascades? Even amateurs need a permit this year.

Twenty-two artists from around North America are spending the week in plein air, painting the beauty of the Olympics.

Maj. Mario Cooper, 37, of SeaTac, fell several hundred feet and landed in a glacial crevasse.

Mt. Baker Wilderness, Washington

Seattle's very urban Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park has an important lesson: relevance.

Slime mold comes in many forms. But this one is the most...memorable.

The Bridge Creek-McAlester Pass Trail takes you all the way from Highway 20 to legendary, gigantic cinnamon rolls and cold beer.

There are more than 20 different permits and passes to use public lands in Washington. Soon, that may change for the better.

The world's top volcanologists will gather in Portland the week of August 14 to talk eruptions, risks, mud slurries, hot gas.

Kimberly Haines, missing for days after a trail run, makes contact by cell phone signal.