How well do you know Washington State?
Washington has volcanoes, rainforests, deserts and a coastline full of islands. Six questions, from easy to hard, with explanations.
Did you know?
- Mount St. Helens now holds one of the world's youngest glaciers. After the 1980 eruption, snow and ice began collecting in the shaded crater, and by the early 2000s this new Crater Glacier had grown thick enough to flow like other glaciers.
- Lake Chelan, a narrow lake in the North Cascades, is about 1,486 feet deep, making it one of the deepest lakes in the United States. Parts of its bottom lie below sea level, carved by glaciers during the Ice Age.
- The town of Leavenworth remade itself in the 1960s as a Bavarian-style village to revive its struggling economy. Today its alpine buildings, festivals and holiday lights attract visitors from across the Northwest.
Mountains, water and two climates
Washington, in the far northwest corner of the contiguous United States, packs remarkable variety into one state. Its western side is green and wet, with rainforests and the island-filled waters of Puget Sound, while its eastern side is dry, sunny and agricultural. Between them rise the Cascade Mountains and their snow-covered volcanoes, which shape the state's weather, water and way of life.
The Cascade divide
Moist air from the Pacific drops rain and snow as it rises over the Cascades. By the time it reaches the eastern side, most of the moisture is gone, creating a rain shadow. That is why towns only a few hours apart can have completely different climates, landscapes and crops.
Living with volcanoes
Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens are all volcanoes. Scientists watch them closely with seismometers and GPS stations. The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens turned it into an outdoor laboratory where researchers still study how forests and animals return after disaster.
The mighty Columbia
The Columbia River carries more water into the Pacific than any other river in North America. Dams along it produce much of the Northwest's electricity, and irrigation from them turned dry land in central Washington into productive farms.
Farms east of the mountains
Beyond apples, Washington is known for sweet cherries, pears, potatoes and wheat grown on the rolling Palouse hills. The Yakima Valley grows most of the hops used by American brewers, and the state has a large and growing wine industry.
Islands and orcas
The San Juan Islands and the waters of Puget Sound are home to orcas, seals and seabirds. Ferries and small boats connect island communities, and whale watching is one of the region's most popular activities.
A landscape shaped by floods
In the 1920s, geologist J Harlen Bretz argued that giant Ice Age floods carved the strange channels of eastern Washington, called the Channeled Scablands. Many scientists doubted him for decades, but later evidence proved him right.