Lauren Braden

Northwest Bucket List: October

October. And the trees are stripped bare, of all they wear, what do I care… Autumn’s crisp days and cool nights have me wrapped up in fleece and I’m definitely not complaining. Fall is my favorite season for exploring the Pacific Northwest, from visits to vineyards and orchards filled with ripe apples, to squeezing in […]

Q: Where to Go Apple Picking near Seattle?

Psst…. get our premier guide to fall travel – Autumn Escapes in the Pacific Northwest. Get inspired to spend your fall weekends combing rocky beaches, savoring the harvest, and hiking scenic mountain trails of Washington and Oregon. Get it here. Dear TripFinder, Autumn is on our minds! Please give me some ideas of where we can take the […]

Northwest Autumn Day Trips: Corn Mazes, Apple Orchards, and Pumpkin Patches

Psst…. get our premier guide to fall travel – Autumn Escapes in the Pacific Northwest. Get inspired to spend your fall weekends combing rocky beaches, savoring the harvest, and hiking scenic mountain trails of Washington and Oregon. Get it here. It’s October, my favorite month in the kitchen and in the great outdoors. Let’s see… the past few days I’ve made […]

Five Oktoberfests in the Pacific Northwest

Psst…. get our premier guide to fall travel – Autumn Escapes in the Pacific Northwest. Get inspired to spend your fall weekends combing rocky beaches, savoring the harvest, and hiking scenic mountain trails of Washington and Oregon. Get it here. Backdropped by the snow-capped peaks of the Cascades, Oktoberfest in the Northwest is the next best thing to Oktoberfest in Munich. So […]

Q: How to Stay Organized for Spontaneous Camping Trips?

Dear TripFinder, Q: Hello! I want to get into camping more but my work schedule makes it difficult to plan trips in advance. I have your car camping checklist and guide to finding last-minute campgrounds, but I think I need tips for getting out the door in a hurry. A few weeks back we took […]

DAY TRIP: Hiking in Paradise at Mount Rainier

Explore the Paradise region of Mt. Rainier on one of these hikes that are bursting with wildflowers right now, plus where to stay if you make it a weekend. Do you hear a mountain calling your name? It’s the most recognizable icon of Washington state’s landscape. It has three of our state’s best campgrounds […]

Northwest Bucket List: August

When you’re a hiker and it’s August, the days are just packed. Blooming wildflowers carpet alpine meadows of nearly every peak in the Cascades and Olympics, and their window of peak beauty is only open for a few weeks. But it’s not just trails of the high country competing for attention on your days off. […]

Great County Fairs in Oregon

I grew up in a small town in southern Illinois that had been settled by Swiss/German Catholic farmers a few centuries ago. Instead of a county fair, we had a fair every August called Kirchenfest on the sprawling church parking lot, and my Dad was in charge of making the funnel cakes. He usually let […]

Five Great County Fairs in Washington State

It’s August, otherwise known throughout the USA as Fair Season! My childhood memories from the county fair where I grew up in rural Illinois are coated in sugar. Puffs of blue cotton candy, popsicles colored like the American flag, a plate of funnel cakes dusted with a heavy coat of sweet powder. Go to any county […]

Hold the S’mores! Campfire Restrictions in the Northwest – 2018

Taking a camping trip this weekend? Pack your gear using our handy Car Camping Checklist and you won’t forget anything, ever. UPDATED July 27 2018 Going camping? It’s dry out there. There are lots of campfire restrictions in place. In fact, 2018 marks the sixth summer in a row that has seen restrictions on campfires in the Northwest. […]

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