The plethora of wilderness and green space surrounding the city is a major benefit of living in Seattle. If you love getting outdoors but could use a few good suggestions from other local hikers, check out the Washington Trails Association’s newly remodeled Hiking Guide.
The new interactive guide offers up more than 2,000 suggested hikes in a user friendly format. The guide’s recent makeover from the tech-savvy nonprofit ONE/Northwest, has made the site into a hikers' wiki: allowing users to write reviews, upload photos, rate and search for a variety of hikes by name, region or difficulty.
Encouraging people to go for a hike in their nearby woods, like the Association does, not only helps people stay active and decrease stress, but it also helps to instill a sense of place and a love for nature. In the long run these feelings can help inspire people to protect natural areas from sprawl, pollution and degradation in the future.
