Top Ten Summer Parks

(Jason Eckes)

Washington

Visit this vast and subtle wilderness and you will be rewarded with stunning diversity: high mountain glaciers, rugged coastlines, and lush rainforests. Along the way you will find hot springs, magnificent waterfalls, wide alpine meadows sparkling with avalanche lilies, larkspur and Indian paintbrush, eerie moss-bearded forests dripping with fog, and cliff-lined beaches. Indeed, this park is referred to as "three parks in one" because of its unique positioning which encompasses three distinct ecosystems. But don't fear that you will lose all touch with civilization. Its location just outside of Seattle means that a few creature comforts are close at hand. Starbucks coffee, anyone?