N · 48°29′50″ · W · 122°12′30″
Washington born and raised, based now in Wenatchee. Explore Washington State is where that local knowledge lives, built up article by article, county by county, coffee shop by coffee shop.
I spent most of my life in the Puget Sound region before settling in Wenatchee in 2017, my base camp where the Cascades give way to the high desert.
Explore Washington State is not a travel blog I update between trips. It is a publication I run full time, built around writers who actually live in the places they cover. Day trips, small towns, coffee shops, city guides, ferry towns, farm country. All of it written by people who are here year-round, not passing through.
If something shows up on EWS, it is because someone who lives there thinks it is worth your time.
From Walla Walla to Port Townsend, Ellensburg to Chelan. EWS covers them the way a local would: where to eat, what to do, how long to stay.
EWS organizes trips by departure city so you can find something good from wherever you are starting.
A running list organized by city, built up over years of covering Washington one town at a time.
EWS publishes guides for what to do each month, which regions are worth visiting when, and how to time a trip right.
My primary project is Explore Washington State, a comprehensive travel and outdoor guide for the Evergreen State. Honest, firsthand, local knowledge that actually helps people plan a trip.
Washington travel guides, hiking resources, city guides, and seasonal content, all written by people who actually live and explore here. Updated regularly with new content across all regions of the state.
Real conversations with artists, historians, chefs, and locals from across the state. More than 300 episodes exploring the people and places that make Washington worth knowing. New episodes every week.
Every region covered on EWS reflects personal travel, not research-only writing. This is the index.
But first · Coffee
It is the first thing I look for when I am writing about a new city or town. Not as a review, but as a read on the place itself. A good independent shop tells you more about a community than almost anything else. I have been tracking them across Washington for years on Explore Washington State.
Browse the coffee shop directory →If you run a Washington business or tourism organization and want to talk about being featured on Explore Washington State, I would love to hear from you. Also happy to connect with fellow writers and people who love this state.