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The ferry crossing and subsequent scenic drive along the Hood Canal enhance the journey to these rapids. The popular route inches near the fast-flowing Skokomish River as it pours down the eastern slopes of the Olympic Range on its way to Lake Cushman. Look out for kingfishers, harlequin ducks, and giant salamanders on the 2-mile (3-km) loop.

A round-trip to the crater and back requires training, professional gear, and a few days. Hire a guide or go with a group if you’re not a seasoned climber.

Recommended as starting point for solitary hikes.

The 6.5-mile (10-km) trail in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness offers a pleasant walk through forests and wild berry picking when the season’s right. Meadows bloom in a kaleidoscope of colors in late spring, and mountain scenery abounds.

Hikers wanting a short spell of deep woods and water head to Olallie State Park, where a 3-mile (5-km) trail to Twin Falls awaits. The park’s amazing plant life includes giant ferns and salmonberry, and some of the Cascades’ few old-growth trees. One Douglas fir has a circumference of 14 ft (4 m).

For one of the country’s premier windsurfing meccas, you’ll have to go to Hood River, Oregon, in the Columbia River Gorge. If extreme sports are not your style, Seattle has two prime locations for all who want to let the wind sweep them away — along the west shores of Lake Washington, between Magnuson Beach and Seward Park; and at Golden Gardens Park where Shilshole Bay meets Puget Sound.

Rent bareboats, or take sailing lessons.

This 93-mile (149-km) trail through several mini-ecosystems around the mountain is ideal for serious backpackers with weeks to spare.

New visitors to the Woodland Park Zoo often bump into this gated area near one of the Zoo entrances. Others, nearly a quarter million annually, make sure to wake up and smell the roses. About 5,000 individual plants and 280 varieties of rose turn this 2.5-acre corner of north Seattle into a technicolor dream.