Mount Baker rises over northern Washington State like a mirage, dominating the landscape like few mountains in the United States. On a clear day, it is visible from as far away as Vancouver, British Columbia, and Tacoma, Washington. This immense volcano is a study in superlatives: it is the third-highest peak in the state, holds the world record for snowfall in a season (95 feet!), and is the second-most heavily glaciated peak in the contiguous United...

The Mount Hood National Forest is the closest national forest to Portland and encompasses the northern end of Oregon's Cascade Mountains and the Columbia River Gorge. Established in 1908 as the Oregon National Forest and renamed the Mount Hood National Forest in 1924, it now consists of more than a million acres. The forest is home to Oregon's tallest mountain, as well as eight designated wilderness areas covering more than 300,000 acres. The forest...

Larchmont Boulevard is more than a street; it is the soul and spine of the surrounding neighborhoods that were created in the early 1900s when Los Angeles was just coming into its own. Located in the heart of Los Angeles, Larchmont Boulevard is a charming, walkable street running north and south from Third Street to Melrose Avenue; it gives residents and visitors the feeling of a small town tucked inside the vast, car-centric city of Los Angeles....

The "Capitol Corridor" is the name of the Amtrak passenger train route between California's capital, Sacramento, and San Jose, the state's first capital upon admission to the Union in 1850. The scenery between these two areas highlights vastly different land uses; examples include an industrialized shoreline covered with a forest of petroleum refineries, urban areas transitioning from industrial to residential use, and a wildlife refuge disturbed...

The river community of Bothell began with the arrival of Columbus Greenleaf and George Wilson in 1870. They staked claims along the Sammamish River after navigating from Seattle across Lake Washington and then east along the meandering Sammamish. Bothell was first a logging community, with several mills producing boards and shingles. After the forests were harvested, it became a farming community, connected to other settlements by the river and, after...

Las Vegas is known aroud the world as a flashy, libertarian oasis where an individual's pursuit of happiness and profit is paramount. This was not true for the city's queer community. Being gay in Las Vegas until the 1990s was a felony with a hefty fine and a long prison sentence. The Las Vegas LGBTQ community did not organize to fight for its rights until the late 1970s and by the early 1980s had made significant headway, before AIDS stopped their...

For many years, visitors traveling to San Francisco came via ferry, and the Ferry Building, one of San Francisco's most famous landmarks, stood ready to welcome them. In the 1920's, the Ferry Building was the world's second-busiest transit terminal (after Charing Cross, London), with more than 50,000 people a day passing through the elegant structure, designed by architect A. Page Brown and opened in 1898. When the 1906 earthquake struck and the ensuing...

In the late 1800s, the area now known as Sparks consisted of ranches and farms. It was not until the early 1900s that Sparks would become the sixth-largest city in Nevada, almost overnight. E.H. Harriman moved the Salt Lake Division of the Southern Pacific Railroad from Wadsworth to swampland four miles east of Reno, and that area would become Sparks. The railroad was the largest and most reliable employer for 54 years, before leaving in 1957. Some...

More commonly known as Pacific Coast Highway, State Route 1 ribbons along or near the Pacific Ocean from Northern California at Leggett in Mendocino down to Southern California at San Juan Capistrano in Orange County. Its construction began in 1913 and was done incrementally, largely because of funding issues, shortage of labor, legal challenges, deep canyons, steep mountains, solid rock, and unstable earth. A true modern marvel, its unique and extraordinary...

Going back to its Native American origins, Sacramento has withstood flood, fire, and plague to honestly earn the moniker Urbs Indomita or "Indomitable City." Such grit--enhanced by an unmatched embrace of diversity and the strength that comes with it--has powered the Sacramento area's role as gold rush epicenter, railroading Goliath, purveyor of hydroelectric power, world war and Cold War arsenal, agricultural hub, and policy center for one of the...