July 12th, 2026 - Washington State
I actually got away from work this weekend and it has been absolutely lovely. I have a child that is leaving on a long trip abroad and we had to come to Seattle to drop him off at the airport. Do you know that means? That means that we get to drive from one corner of this wonderful state to the other! I only get to do that every few years. I spend most of my time going North and South on the East side of the state.
Washington state can be quite the whiplash if you haven't been here before. The first impression that people get when they hear that I live in Washington is that "Oh, it must be so green!". Well, not on my side of the state, it is actually a semi-arid shrub steppe. We are primarily a dry-ish grass land with some of the most lovely Sage you can see. We do have a wet season, and it becomes green in the spring followed by a purple that dots the mountains around us. The basin (where we are located) has about 250,000 people who live here, and it is a little corner of paradise.
Despite what people say, we are not actually a dessert. What is really fun is that we have an insanely cold river (Columbia) that runs right through the center of our area. It is large enough that people water ski on it (that threw off my South Carolina brother in law) and on the very hot summer days the river is packed with people cooling off in the water. The source of the Columbia is the snow pack up in Canada. So, it is, all year, freshly melted snow and maintains its frigid temperature all throughout the year. It was actually when I was an adult that I learned that most people don't associate rivers with 45 degree F water. That is something fairly unique to us.
If you drive about two hours due West from us, you suddenly run into the end of the rain shadow. Then you get an intense thick forest that is unbelievable. When I say that it is thick, you really do have to see it. I've been in many forests, but the forests of Western Washington are just a mass of green. Even with the logging that has occurred, it remains so thick and green. I spent a lot of my youth backpacking and mountain biking through this area, and it is lovely. If you go even further west you hit the Olympic area, which is the ONLY rainforest in the continental US. We also have mountains, a desert, and a tundra. It is such a diverse state.
When we left our town it was going to be in the high 90s that day. When we arrived in Seattle it was the mid 70s. There is that much of a temperature drop from one side of the state to the other. It really is jumping from one climate to another in a three hour drive. We had some fun going through the pass (Cascades are beautiful) and watching the temperature on our car drop continually until it hovered in the 70s. We did the same on our honeymoon.
If ever you find yourself going to Washington, please take the opportunity to just drive from one side to the other. It really is an amazing experience.