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The Best Eagle Watching in the Pacific Northwest

Twenty miles south of the Canadian border and twenty miles east of Bellingham, there is a gathering of America’s flying mascot. Along the shores of North Fork of the Nooksack River, hundreds of bald eagles feast upon the schools of returning chum salmon. As the chum slowly start to decompose after arriving in freshwater and …

2,000+ Small Earthquakes Have Hit The Pacific Northwest Since New Years Day

Along the northern end of the Puget Sound and Strait of Juan de Fuca, the faults are waking up. Mere months after The The New Yorker wrote an article saying residents in the greater Seattle area were doomed, the region has been rocked by thousands of earthquakes. From January 1st, 2016 through January 4th, 2016, there were …

Crater Lake Breaks Snowfall Record For December

Crater Lake National Park had a really tough winter in 2014-15. In February, the Outdoor Society took our inaugural expedition to the region and were shocked at the little amount of snowfall. Usually, by February Crater Lake should see nearly 300 inches of snowfall. In February of 2015, it had nearly 100 inches. It was a pathetic snow …

America’s 10 Most Visited National Parks of 2015

Chances are, you visited one of the 59 National Parks that are scattered around the country. America’s National Park’s have never been more popular, with 2015 seeing 300 million visitors to National Park Service lands. Around the country, numerous parks shattered visitation records and gave wilderness experiences to many who had previously not seen the …

Unwrapping a White Christmas in the Olympic Mountains

I never expect a White Christmas, and if you are a resident of Western Washington, you shouldn’t either. Over the last century, the city of Seattle has only had four Christmas Days with snowfall. In outlying areas, the total is higher, but not much. In the Pacific Northwest, snowy holidays are what we see on Instagram or …

The National Park Service is Watching Your Instagram

Most days, Instagram looks like the wild west of Leave No Trace Principles and proper stewardship rules in the wilderness. On nature pages across the app, scenes of rule breaking are shared and loved. Remote areas in the wilderness become shutterbug shrines, luring scores of outdoor enthusiasts. Birds are fed, signs are ignored and laws are …

Olympic On Pace to be 7th Most-Visited National Park: November 2015 Visitor Stats

As the year winds down, so do the number of individuals who head outdoors to Olympic National Park. What started as an endless onslaught of wilderness lovers flooding Washington State’s most popular National Park has slowly turned into a trickle. In November of 2015, when large retailers like REI encouraged everyone to #OptOutside, Olympic saw …

Snowboarders Rejoice as Powder Returns to Olympic National Park

Winter snows have finally arrived at Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park, and local snow-sports enthusiasts couldn’t be happier. For the first time in what feels like a lifetime, enough powdery goodness fell on the ridge, allowing for snowboarders, skiers and snowshoers a chance to frolic in one of the greatest winter playgrounds in America. …

Weather Closes Staircase and Other Areas of Olympic National Park for the Weekend

After what has felt like a decade’s worth of bad weather hitting us over the past seven days, the effects of the storms are continuing to wreak havoc on travel plans around Washington State and in our National Parks. Across the state, numerous roads are closed, with many more damaged and/or flooded. Rivers are flooding and spilling …

Tips for Hiking During Bad Weather Around Olympic National Park

Let’s be real for a minute. The weather on the Olympic Peninsula can be downright nasty. It isn’t unusual or out of the ordinary to have a storm dump over an inch of rain a day. You can leave your house any month of the year and find yourself caught in a deluge of rain. …