View Tom Dempsey’s favorite photographs from his home state of Washington in two galleries:
Click “i” to read descriptive Captions. Click the dotted square to scroll a set of thumbnail images. Add any of the above images to your Cart for purchase using my Portfolio site.
The following favorite Washington panoramas are stitched from several overlapping images (for wider angle of view and more detail in larger prints):
Add any of the above images to your Cart for purchase using my Portfolio site.
The state of Washington is one of the most ecologically and scenically diverse in the USA. In altitude, the land varies from sea level to 14,411 feet at the summit of Mount Rainier, an awesome active volcano covered in glaciers. The Carbon Glacier flows to a lower altitude than any other glacier in the Lower 48 states. A huge glacier actually covered Seattle 3,000 feet deep in ice only 15,000 years ago, gouging the scenic fjord of present-day Puget Sound.
The state lies in a transitional latitude between sub-Arctic northern forests and warmer drier regions. Moist temperate air masses sweep onto the west coast and hit the spectacular Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges, dumping heavy rain on the southwestward (windward) slopes, creating dense temperate rainforest. The mountains wring the air dry, creating extensive rain shadows to their east and northeast, such as in the sunny San Juan Islands, and in the desert lands of Eastern Washington, irrigated by the mighty Columbia River.
Washington boasts a tremendous variety of landscapes, native plants, and wildflowers, as illustrated in the following articles:
- spring training hikes
- Cascades: I-90 to US-2
- Cascades: Mountain Loop
- Columbia River Gorge
- Goat Rocks Wilderness
- Islands: San Juan, Whidbey, Fidalgo, Vendovi, Bainbridge
- Mount Rainier
- Mount Saint Helens
- North Cascades Mountains
- Olympic Peninsula
- Seattle
Recommended Washington guidebooks
Search for the latest Washington hiking & travel books on Amazon.com.
- Lonely Planet Seattle 8 (Travel Guide), Paperback – Illustrated, 2020
- Seattle Stairway Walks: An Up-and-Down Guide to City Neighborhoods, Paperback – 2012
- Day Hiking Central Cascades: Stevens Pass * Glacier Peak Wilderness * Lakes Wenatchee & Chelan (The Mountaineer Books), Paperback – 2023
- Day Hiking South Cascades (Done in a Day), Paperback – 2007
- Day Hike! Mount Rainier, 4th Edition: More than 50 Washington State Trails You Can Hike in a Day, Paperback – Illustrated, 2019
- Moon San Juan Islands: Best Hikes, Local Spots, and Weekend Getaways (Travel Guide), Paperback – Illustrated, 2020
- Day Hiking North Cascades: Mount Baker * North Cascades Highway * Methow Valley * Mountain Loop Highway, Paperback – Illustrated, 2020
- Moon Olympic Peninsula: Coastal Getaways, Rainforests & Waterfalls, Hiking & Camping (Travel Guide), Paperback – 2021
- Hiking the Columbia River Gorge: A Guide to the Area’s Greatest Hiking Adventures (Falcon Regional Hiking Series), Paperback – 2014
- Day Hiking Columbia River Gorge: National Scenic Area, Silver Star Scenic Area, Portland-Vancouver to the Dalles, Paperback – Mountaineers Books 2011
- Washington’s Best Wildflower Hikes, Paperback – 2004
