Washington Trails Association — Attraction in Seattle

Washington Trails Association is the organization for hikers and lovers of the outdoors. From their website: "We protect hiking trails and wild lands, take volunteers out to maintain trails, and promote hiking as a healthy, fun way to explore the outdoors." $35 a year for a membership and you get a monthly magazine plus hiking and volunteering information. In the magazine and the website, you get information on the best places to hike, where to hike with children and pets, and the best gear for your hikes. You can also volunteer in one of the Work Trail Parties where you can help for 1-4 days maintaining different trails. If you love hiking and the outdoors, this is the organization for you. I haven't become a member yet, but I plan on joining in the...

This org does a lot of good trail work. Some work parties are uncomfortable depending on participants and how they interact; too many preconceived ideas on part of some teenagers & young adults, imo. Discouraging to avid hikers when attitude is 'doesn't matter what gets done' and something that was just built gets destroyed by participant to build something else (lack of supervision or leaders who want to be encouraging no matter what). These things make you feel like volunteering somewhere else (it's not just me who reacts this way) or doing some other fun, less frustrating activity. Despite all that, regular volunteers and leaders are generally competent and helpful and very nice and in the end, a lot of great work gets...

Fantastic organization that offers a ton of resources for trail users. By far the most comprehensive trail organization out there. I don't know that any other state has been so blessed to have something like them. Not even our beautiful state neighbor Oregon has anything like it. The WTA makes it so easy to find trails and campsites and all the info you need to know about them, from length, difficulty level, trailhead fees and passes required, trail conditions, to whether you can bring your dog. They definitely spoil us Washingtonians. Thank you...