Skagit Valley Blog

Skagit Valley Weekend – North Cascades Foothills to Deception Pass State Park

We started our Skagit Valley weekend with a glamping experience at the Willowbrook Manor. Willowbrook Manor sits amid beautiful Skagit Valley farmland, four miles east of Sedro-Woolley, Washington in the beautiful North Cascades foothills. The Estate features two acres of …

Weekend Cornucopia in the Valley

From commercial crops to flowers, seeds, and bulbs, to private farms offering their
abundance by way of CSA’s, farmers markets and pop-up roadside stands, a
leisurely drive through the backroads off highway 20 will fill your bags and
baskets with the very best.

Concrete Ghost Walk

What if the Concrete Ghosts could talk?! Wouldn’t it be fun to hear about their lives, deaths, and the reason they still hang around our town?! Now you can!

Craft Beer Harvest in Skagit Valley

Harvesting hops, growing barley, attending great beer festivals, and hopping on the Farm to Pint Passport tour is how craft beer lovers celebrate fall in the Skagit Valley!

Skagit Valley Giant Pumpkin Festival

Kick-off the harvest in the Valley at the Skagit Valley Giant Pumpking Festival! Christianson’s Nursery is an official weigh-off site for the Giant Pumpkin Commonwealth (GPC), an international organization, who are sanctioned to submit giant pumpkin world records!

Genuine Skagit Valley

From the first commercial crop of cultivated potatoes in 1853, the Skagit Delta has been supplying the region, state, and world with nearly every crop imaginable. The Valley produces almost 95% of U.S. table beet seed (50% of the world supply), 75% of U.S. spinach seed, 25% of global cabbage seed stocks, and more tulip, daffodil, and iris bulbs that any other U.S. county.

Lost in the Valley

I felt like I was exactly where I should be, and by taking some time to focus on the richness of my environment and the relationships important to me, I felt refreshed and ready to tackle my projects with a new sense of enthusiasm, and with some new ideas. Sometimes taking “time off” is more like refilling the tank so you can drive another 1000 miles. Essential.

Seasonal Changes on the Confluence: A Year in the North Cascades

This article was written by North Cascades Institute M. Ed Alumni Brendan McGarry recording the seasonal changes he experienced during his year in residency in the North Cascades. Far up the Skagit River, the Confluence property, a plot of land …

Spring Fever in the Valley

I don’t know about you, but “Spring Fever” is no joke in my world. And if you live in the Skagit Valley, opportunities for indulging those rampant post-winter-doldrum impulses are numerous and varied. A mere glimpse of vegetable starts on …

Skagit Valley is Fast Becoming a Destination For Craft Beer

When looking at a community’s craft beer scene, the home brewer is the heart of where it all begins. Skagit Valley has a thriving home brewer scene which includes the Skagit Farm to Pint Home Brewers annual competition. Three home …

An Afternoon Birding in Skagit Valley

Not for the first time, I recently wondered why it is that residents in any given tourist destination often haven’t indulged in the many offerings their locale features. I’m as guilty as the next when it comes to this phenomenon …

Bowman Bay – The Quieter Side of Deception Pass

Picnic, rent kayaks and paddle boards, and hike along the north and south sides of the bay. Brad Solomon, of Skagit County Explorer, created this video for you. Skagit County Explorer is your guide to the unique and different in …

Skagit Valley Festival of Family Farms 2018 – October 6-7

You can have a hands-on-experience learning what it takes to run a farm, from growing crops to feeding animals at the Festival of Family Farms on October 6-7, 2018. It is an opportunity to talk to your farmers and follow …

June is Orca Month

It’s almost officially summer, but we’re already in the heat of the 2018 whale season. It’s been a record year for the number of transient (or Bigg’s) orca whales. In fact, we’ve seen killer whales on over 64 tours in this young season.

Know Your Beer Farmer

I had the opportunity to ride along with Dave Hedlin, third generation farmer, of Hedlin’s Family Farm in La Conner, WA on his first day of planting organic Skagit Copeland Barley.