8 Delightful Towns to Visit in The Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is widely recognized for its coastal landscapes and for the places people find tucked between its natural wonders. The region tends to exceed expectations because of the small towns scattered across it. Whether you are after oceanside scenery in Brookings, Oregon, skiing in McCall, Idaho, or a waterfront downtown in Poulsbo, Washington, there is something here for every traveler in these eight towns across the United States corner of the region.

Sequim, Washington

Sequim sits on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, part of the Salish Sea, on the dry side of the Olympic Mountains. That last detail is the one that matters: the peaks west of town throw a rain shadow over the valley, so Sequim gets roughly a third of the rainfall that soaks the rest of the peninsula. Locals call it the Blue Hole, and it is why lavender grows here at all.

Visitors stroll the rows at Purple Haze Lavender Farm and turn out for the Sequim Lavender Festival each July. The waterfront is reachable from the John Wayne Marina, named for the actor who donated the land, or along the shore at Sequim Bay State Park. For Olympic National Park without the hiking, the Dungeness Spit nearby runs more than five miles into the strait, the longest natural sand spit in the country, with a lighthouse at the end of it.

McCall, Idaho

McCall draws a winter crowd for the extensive trail network at Brundage Mountain Resort and the sliding and tubing at the McCall Activity Barn, but it is an underappreciated summer town. The downtown looks out over Payette Lake from Legacy Park, and the lake is glacial, cold, and clear enough to swim in once July arrives.

Restaurants like the Stax sandwich shop and live events at the Alpine Playhouse fill the evenings. Ponderosa State Park occupies a peninsula jutting into the lake with old-growth pine and miles of trail. McCall also throws a Winter Carnival each winter built around monumental snow sculptures, which is worth timing a trip around if you do not mind the cold.

Newport, Oregon

Newport is the anchor town of the central Oregon coast. The Yaquina Bay Bridge, a 1936 Conde McCullough arch, connects the town's north and south halves and turns up on most of the postcards. The beaches do the rest: Nye Beach runs wide and walkable, and South Beach State Park sweeps south from the jetty.

The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse and the Yaquina Bay North Viewpoint handle the panoramas. Downtown, the Historic Bayfront stays busy along working fish docks where sea lions haul out and make themselves heard. The Pacific Maritime Heritage Center covers the local history, and the Oregon Coast Aquarium is among the better aquariums in the country; it housed Keiko, the orca from Free Willy, before his release.

Brookings, Oregon

Brookings sits at the southern end of the Oregon coast and is warm enough to be called the Banana Belt, with winter temperatures that regularly run well above the rest of the state's shoreline. Its stretch of coast is the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor, twelve miles of sea stacks and natural bridges with pullouts at Whaleshead Beach, Cape Ferrelo, and Lone Ranch Beach.

The same rock formations continue through Harris Beach State Park, which has a campground right above the sand. The town itself has Azalea Park, seafood at places like the Catalyst Seafood Restaurant and Lounge, and the Chetco Valley Historical Society Museum. One piece of history the museum covers: in September 1942, a floatplane launched from a Japanese submarine dropped incendiary bombs on Mount Emily just inland, the only aerial bombing of the continental United States during the war.

Poulsbo, Washington

Poulsbo sits on Liberty Bay on the Kitsap Peninsula, across Puget Sound from Seattle, and it goes by Little Norway. Norwegian immigrants settled here in the 1880s because the fjord-like bay and the mountains behind it reminded them of home, and the town has leaned into it ever since: the downtown storefronts carry rosemaling trim, Viking Fest runs each May around Norwegian Constitution Day, and Sluys Bakery sells a dense loaf called Poulsbo bread that people drive from Seattle for.

Historic Front Street runs beside the Liberty Bay Marina, with the wooden walkways of Liberty Bay Waterfront Park alongside. The SEA Discovery Center handles the aquarium tanks. Out of town, Poulsbo Fish Park has salmon-viewing in autumn, North Kitsap Heritage Park has the forest trails, and Heronswood Garden is a serious plantsman's garden now owned by the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe.

Lewiston, Idaho

Lewiston sits where the Clearwater meets the Snake River on the Washington border, and it has two claims most visitors never hear. It is Idaho's only seaport, reachable by barge some 465 miles inland through the Columbia and Snake lock system. And it is the gateway to Hells Canyon, which at 7,993 feet is the deepest river gorge in North America, nearly 2,000 feet deeper than the Grand Canyon.

Hells Gate State Park is the launch point, with the Lewis and Clark Discovery Center on site and jet boat operators running upriver into the canyon itself. Downtown holds the Nez Perce County Historical Society and the winter light display at Locomotive Park. The Greenbelt Trail follows the rivers for several paved miles, which is the easy way to take in the country around town.

Seaside, Oregon

Seaside has the broadest beach on the northern Oregon coast and a 1.5-mile concrete Promenade running beside it, built in 1920 and still the spine of the town. At its midpoint, the Turnaround marks the official western end of the Lewis and Clark Trail. The expedition wintered nearby, and a reconstructed salt cairn in town shows where members boiled seawater through the winter of 1806 to make salt for the journey home.

The Necanicum Estuary Natural History Park follows the river with good birdwatching and better sunsets. Ecola State Park, a few miles south toward Cannon Beach, holds the headland rainforest, and the Tillamook Head trail connects the two through old-growth spruce high above the water. In town, the shops and restaurants cluster around Quatat Park on the riverbank.

Westport, Washington

Westport sits on the southern arm of Grays Harbor and still runs as a working fishing port, with one of the larger charter fleets on the Washington coast. Westport Light State Park carries the Grays Harbor Lighthouse, which at 107 feet is the tallest in the state, and a paved trail runs from it along the dunes.

Twin Harbors State Park covers the beach walking and the tidepooling at low water. In town, the Westport Maritime Museum occupies the old Coast Guard station and holds a first-order Fresnel lens, the Fisherman's Boardwalk runs along the marina, and the observation tower gives the overview. The Westport Jetty reaches a long way out into the Pacific, and it is a good place to watch gray whales pass in spring.

Picking Your Northwest

These eight do not overlap much, which is the point. Sequim sits in a rain shadow and grows lavender because of it. McCall and Lewiston are the Idaho pair, one on a glacial lake and one at the mouth of the deepest gorge on the continent. Newport, Brookings, and Seaside cover the Oregon coast at its north, middle, and southern ends, with a wartime bombing site, a salt cairn, and a 1936 arch bridge between them. Poulsbo is Norwegian down to the bread, and Westport still smells like a working harbor. Pick two that sit near each other, because the driving between them is half the trip.