Jump to a day
Stops, in order
A cultured little town just over the California line, famous for its long-running Shakespeare Festival and a lovely creekside park.
An impossibly blue lake filling the caldera of a collapsed volcano — the deepest lake in the United States.
High-desert playground of the Cascades — a legendary craft-beer scene, a river through downtown, and volcanic landscapes and climbing rock all around.
Oregon's glacier-capped high point and the waterfall-laced river gorge below it — including the tallest falls in the state.
Keep-it-weird Portland — the world's biggest bookstore, food carts on every corner, rose and Japanese gardens, and a bottomless craft-beer and coffee scene.
Oregon's capital in the heart of Willamette Valley wine country, with a glorious ten-waterfall park just east.
One of the great drives in America — Highway 101 past sea stacks, lighthouses, tide pools, an aquarium, and 40 miles of towering sand dunes.
The oldest American settlement west of the Rockies, at the mouth of the Columbia — a hilltop column, Lewis and Clark's winter fort, and 'Goonies' nostalgia.
The volcano that blew its top in 1980 — a still-recovering blast zone with a gaping crater and a superb ridge-top observatory.
The glaciated 14,411-ft giant that looms over Seattle — wildflower meadows at Paradise and high alpine views at Sunrise.
Washington's capital at the southern tip of Puget Sound — a grand domed statehouse and an easygoing waterfront.
Three parks in one — glaciated peaks, a moss-draped rainforest, and a wild Pacific coast of sea stacks and tide pools.
The Emerald City on Puget Sound — Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, glass art and pop culture, coffee and ferries, all under the gaze of Mount Rainier. A big stay.
- 611Day 611 — Pike Place & the WaterfrontFull day · 3h 30m planned
- 612Day 612 — Seattle CenterFull day · 5h 30m planned
- 613Day 613 — Pioneer Square & BallardFull day · 5h planned
- 614Day 614 — Flight & ViewsFull day · 5h 30m planned
- 615Day 615 — Free DayFree day
- 616Day 616 — North to the islandsDrive day · 2h drive
An emerald archipelago reached by ferry — orca waters, a mountaintop with a 360° view, and slow, salt-air island life.
The loop's longest step outside the country — a glass city wedged between the mountains and the Pacific, with a thousand-acre forest at the end of downtown, a rainforest canopy on the North Shore, and arguably the best food in North America.
The American Alps — over three hundred glaciers, more than anywhere else in the lower 48, hung above turquoise lakes on one of the great mountain highways. One of the least-visited national parks in the country, and nobody can explain why.
A former timber town remade as a Bavarian village in the Cascade foothills — alpine kitsch, river play, and the trailhead to the storied Enchantments.
A charming southeast-Washington town that's become one of the West's great wine destinations — and the last stop before the Rockies.