by 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. …
Three Amazing Backpacks for Day Hikers
I love backpacks. In fact, I love backpacks so much, I have an entire collection of them. I have so many backpacks, I have backpacks where I put my other backpacks. It is ridiculous. When I walk into REI or any of the other outdoor shops around the Seattle area, the first place I walk …
Wolf Population Increases in Yellowstone National Park
Things are looking up for the wolves of Yellowstone National Park! Despite a handful of local ranchers poaching wolves that they view as dangerous to their way of life, the wolf population is thriving since they were nearly eradicated in the early 1900s until the 1990s. While once extremely rare to see, wolves have returned in …
Decorating with Olympic National Park: Ornaments and Calendars Edition
I am terrible at buying gifts for my friends and family. Year in and year out, while others see joy on the faces of the person opening their gift, I tend to see confusion and disappointment. Luckily, I think I may have figured out a solution for everyone this year. This year, I am doing …
Come to The Outdoor Society LIVE Holiday Party
Join us for our first annual The Outdoor Society LIVE Holiday Party! If you haven’t been to one of our LIVE events, make this your first! On December 8th, 2015 at Three Magnets Brewery in Olympia we will be hosting one of our amazing monthly events. Like previous events, attending our holiday party will let you experience our outdoor …
Olympic National Park Breaks Three Million Visitors in 2015
For the third straight month, Washington State’s most-visited National Park has seen a decrease in popularity. Despite the drop in visitation through October of 2015, for the year Olympic National Park did break the three million visitor mark for the third consecutive year and the 17th time in park history. While Olympic is a still …