Relocating to Washington (Seattle, Spokane, Bellingham: best towns, renting, how much)

[Guitari101]

I am a 28 year old single male who loves the outdoors, especially hiking. I am looking to relocate to Washington and am looking for advice/information regarding the best towns/cities in Washington to fit my interests. A nice place for me would be near the mountains and plenty of hiking and have a younger population, plenty of local culture, people who love the outdoors, and have a decent amount of sunny days. I greatly appreciate your help. Thanks.

[Ira500]

Central and Eastern Washington get plenty of sunshine, but less employment opportunities. The Seattle area has lots of young people, lots of hiking and outdoor activities, and less sunny days. That said, there are many, many days which are just cloudy, and great for outdoor activities.

[allforcats]

Hi Guitari101. Your description sounds like so many areas here! And WA is a pretty large state.

What about work? Contributors to this forum usually recommend that one live near work, because commuting, by either public transit systems or by car, can be crowded, slow and wearing, especially the farther from home one's work is.

Where will you be working?

[Guitari101]

I am in the healthcare field and employment opportunities abound throughout Washington and the United States. With this fact in mind, I am trying to find a great town to meet my interests and then find a job there.

[AzDreamer]

Search the forum for Wenatchee and Ellensburg threads, they sound close to what you say you are looking for.

[sylvanarrow]

Well, if you want sun, Western Washington is pretty much out. :P

Spokane has the biggest population area east of the mountains, and you'll probably find the most in the way of things-for-a-single-guy-to-do there. Also, there are a ton of outdoor recreational opportunities. Four downhill skill areas within an hour and a half drive (and Schweitzer, which is more resorty, is two hours) and unlike the mountains around Seattle, the lift lines are short or non-existent. :P Lots of hiking (and again, a lot less crowded than in the west--you will see wildlife, often the large kind), and there are two huge parks (thousands of acres) within twenty minutes of downtown. The Centennial Trail is a 30+ mile paved bike trail that runs along the river from NW Spokane through the city and the valley and on to Coeur d'Alene in Idaho.

All that said, Spokane is not as sunny as some of the other spots in Eastern Washington people have mentioned, but it is a lot drier than the west side (there are pine trees, but they don't have moss draped all over them . It's a four-seasons climate where summers tend to be hot and winters cold (with snow).

[Ira500]

Okay: how about Port Townsend? Not exactly Palm Springs in terms of sunshine, but it's in the Olympic Rain Shadow, so it rains a lot less than Seattle, is pretty, lots of hiking nearby, near water and mountains, young people, artsy community...

[Guitari101]

From what I have read and heard, the towns most akin to my interests are Ellensburg, Wenatchee, Port Townsend, Leavenworth, Bellingham, Olympia, Redmond, and Issaquah. The first four towns, Ellensburg, Wenatchee, Port Townsend, and Leavenworth, are all in the rain shadow, while the last four, Bellingham, Olympia, Redmond, and Issaquah, are not in the rain shadow. Are these aforementioned towns in the rain shadow comparable culturally to the towns not in the rain shadow? I hope not to offend anyone by putting so much emphasis on the climate and potential grayness in Washington, but I am used to many sunny days with my last two residences in the Sunshine State and the Valley of the Sun. The most important town aspects are the presence of good cultured people who love the outdoors, but climate is a factor in my search. Thank you.

[allforcats]

Hi Guitari. First, the "rain shadow" is a weather phenomenon of wind direction, mountains, and shape of fairly flat land that occurs on the western side of the Cascade Mountain Range and travels, lessened, up the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Port Townsend is on the Olympic Peninsula, west of the Cascades. All the other cities you mentioned are not in the rain shadow.

Ellensburg, Wenatchee and Leavenworth are east of the Cascade Mountains. That means the clouds deposit most of their rain on the west side of the mountains, and by the time they cross the mountains they have very little rain left. Washington state has three climates: west of the Cascades there's rain and cloudiness; east of the Cascades there's quite a bit less rain and a lot more sunshine; in the upper northeast corner there's some rain again, but not at all as much as there is west of the mountains so there's more sunshine than in the western side. If you look at, say, Mapquest and switch to the Aerial View, you'll see how the west side of the state looks green, most of the eastern side looks brown, and the northeastern side looks green again.

Bellingham, Redmond, Issaquah and Olympia (from north to south) get significantly nourishing amounts of rain, drizzle, clouds and partly-cloudy days. There are slight differences between north, central and south, but the differences are basically just a few inches of rain per year, a few degrees of warmth or cold, and a few days more or less of clouds or sunshine.

Does that make the climates a bit clearer? I hope so.

West of the Cascades is where you'll find opera, lots of bookstores, lectures, concerts, museums, art galleries, universities, colleges and community colleges at almost every turn, ballet, world-famous chefs, artists' colonies, and so forth. The western side has the big population, and thus a concentration of cultural opportunities, medical facilities, employment, and goods and services.

The three cities east of the mountains have many attractive, wonderful qualities, and quantities of snow during the winter; concentration of cultural activities is not a big part of their scenes. Most of the area is agricultural and ranching. During the winters, getting to the west side over the mountain passes can be impossible for days at a time, depending on how much snow falls in the passes and how high the avalanche danger is (the state closes the passes until it's safer to drive). That accessibility to the west side is something you might want to consider.

Port Townsend, and the cities around it, are small, beautiful and friendly communities. For the cultural benefits you seem to want, even large stores and comparative supermarket shopping, you would want to make trips to the bigger cities.

As for hiking and all other outdoor activities from white-water rafting, camping in the forests on the lookout for bears, kayaking near whales or in the city, to mountain climbing, there is hardly anywhere in Washington where you are more than 15 to 45 minutes away from serious places to do the most challenging to the most lazy outdoor activities, and Washingtonians love their outdoors.

WA is a complex place. You can find what you want here, but you should spend time renting a place and roaming to all points of the compass to get a sense of what suits you best.

[cobolt]

I think the OP said "a decent amount of sunny days" so the rain shadow makes little difference as you can still have cloudy days without rain.