Living in Seattle as a Hiker and Landscape Photographer
Part of my reason for taking a year to focus on landscape photography full time was to figure out where I want to settle down. I came to Seattle in 2014 after researching all of the cities in the US, but a lot has changed since then.
I was looking for a small-medium size city with good access to beautiful nature and all the other things you might expect a hiker nerd to enjoy. It has certainly lived up to those expectations and is absolutely one of the most beautiful corners of the world, but…is it still the right place for me?
If you’re also trying to figure out where to settle down and Seattle is on your radar, read on.
The Good
Location
Seattle is surrounded by volcanic peaks and impressive mountain ranges, such as the North Cascades and the Olympics. These can be reached in 2.5-4 hours of driving, depending on your destination.
A 4 hour drive is also enough to reach the rugged Pacific Coast, deserts to the east, the Columbia River Gorge, Garibaldi in BC, and some of the most stunning volcanic peaks on the planet. The diversity of natural landscapes in the Pacific Northwest is unparalleled.
Other landmarks such as Glacier, Banff, Jasper, Crater Lake, and the Redwoods can all be reached in a full day of driving. That covers some of the best hiking and landscape photography destinations in North America, and locations such as Alaska, Colorado, and the Southwest are a short plane ride (or long drive) away. Proximity to Seattle-Tacoma Airport provides easy access to more remote destinations.
As for shorter trips, the Issaquah Alps, half an hour away, provide nice trail-running opportunities, and Snoqualmie Pass, an hour away, has nice downhill/cross-country skiing and many hiking trails.
Weather / Climate
Important Warning: the images below were taken with a Google Pixel 1 phone, and are unedited.
Spring starts early, Winter arrives late, and overall the climate is very mild. By my standards, anyway. The image above was taken on a hike in February in the Olympics. Around the same time, Cherry Blossoms start to bloom in the streets of Seattle.
Make no mistake, there is plenty of snow at higher elevations, but in some areas the snow does not arrive until late Fall. The image below was taken at around 6000ft in the Olympics in late November.
And below are two images from the Cascades in October during two different years, both around 5-6k elevation.
While Seattle is known for a dark and rainy Winter, when I compare it to the UK or the Nordics — other kinds of places I like to spend my time — Seattle is very mild, with long days and more than enough sunlight. Only a month or two feel particularly “dark”, but with the evergreen trees and the openness of the Puget Sound, “calm and serene” feels like a more appropriate description.
Neighborhoods and Parks
Most cities feel like just that — a city. Seattle feels like a set of small towns surrounding a city. You can live here without ever going to the actual “city”.
These towns might have a central area with a few shops and places to get coffee, food, or a beer, but otherwise they primarily consist of parks and single family homes.
I should note that, in the short time that I have lived here, many large apartment buildings have been built, and some neighborhoods are now a lot more lively and sometimes rowdy than they used to be. However, there are still many areas that are very quiet as well.
And the parks are, in my opinion, some of the best I’ve seen in any city. And by best, I mean most natural and wild. You can feel like you’re on a real hike without even leaving the city.
It’s also important to note that, thanks to the hills, trees, natural landscaping, and surrounding water and mountains, the views are some of the best you could ever hope for in a city. I took the image below one day in February while out on a walk. (Clearly without bothering to level the phone…)
Views like this can be found just half an hour from downtown. Nothing but water, trees, and distant mountains. After living near New York, I sometimes can’t believe this is real.
Work
If you work in tech, Seattle is absolutely one of the best places in my opinion. The commute times and housing prices are about half of what they are in some other tech hubs like San Francisco. Many tech companies now have a presence here, and remote work is becoming more and more common.
The presence of tech is not entirely good news, however. I will get to this in the section below.
The BAD
Location
I mentioned earlier that the location offers great access to incredible landscapes, but there are some downsides. While there are certainly mountains nearby, the most impressive peaks lie in the 2.5-4 hours of driving range. That means that if you’re doing a day hike, you may spend more time in the car than actually hiking. Depending on where you’re headed, part of your drive will be through city and endless urban sprawl. Often you’ll be driving on I-5, which is a fairly large and busy highway given that Seattle is located between Vancouver and Portland.
It is not a pleasant drive.
You also have to consider the odd fact that every weekend, thousands of people who love nature spend a full work day driving, which is not particularly great for the environment.
I mean, I do it too.
For those who want to be closer to great hiking trails, I would recommend Bellingham for its proximity to the North Cascades, or Nelson, BC. For tech workers, Zurich is a medium-sized city that’s less than an hour away from incredible mountains and with a strong tech presence.
Another element of location is the way land is managed here. National Parks are an absolute treasure since they are protected from logging and other human activity, which is a good thing, but it’s important to note that this means no off-trail exploration, no drones, no camping wherever you want, and having to get camping permits in advance. There are certainly wilderness areas that are much less regulated, but this is important to note.
Weather / Climate
I have to admit, August in Seattle is brutal. It’s a beautiful time at higher elevations — the wildflowers are out and the temperatures are reasonable. But at sea level, it is hot and dry. Again, by my standards. I don’t tolerate heat well.
The worst part is the forest fires. These have been happening more frequently in recent years. Last year, for over an entire week everyone had to stay indoors with air purifiers running — if they were lucky enough to have an air purifier.
Weatherspark is a good source for weather data in different locations. Below is the temperature range for Seattle.
Side note: If you hope to escape the heat by hiding indoors for a month, you may be disappointed to learn that most homes in Seattle do not have AC.
Crowds
If you want to escape the Summer heat by going to a lake, don’t expect solitude unless you are willing to hike far or know of a hidden gem that is yet to be discovered on Instagram.
There are not many left.
As Seattle has grown and attracted outdoorsy people from all over the country, many hiking areas have become overrun and resorted to implementing permit and lottery systems. If you’re serious about landscape photography, you know that you need a very flexible schedule to capture the best conditions, so permit systems are your worst enemy after clear skies.
And if you’re just hoping to go for a small day hike, you may find yourself sharing the trail with hundreds of others if you go to a location that’s close to the city or very popular.
While Seattle itself only has ~776,000 people, the surrounding area is quite populated, as you can see on the light pollution map.
I should also talk about the crowd factor in the city itself. A few years ago I had a favorite spot by the water where I would sit and meditate or simply watch the sunset. Since then I’ve had to seek out other spots due to the number of cars and people passing by. Sometimes there are groups of people playing music and otherwise making a substantial amount of noise. There are still parks that have very few people and feel much more “wild” than any park I’ve seen in a city, but it’s hard to deny the fact that the city is growing rapidly.
Permits and Regulations
You can certainly find remote areas where you can wander freely, but if you hope to just go for a forest walk the way you can in the Nordics, you will have trouble since most land is either private property or subject to strict regulations, such as the requirement to stay on a trail.
(Note: I am not in any way advocating going off-trail where it is not allowed. The rules are in place to protect vegetation from being destroyed in popular areas. Please follow them. I’ve seen the forest floor surrounding beautiful waterfalls transformed from beautiful moss and ferns to bare soil in a few years of human activity.)
There is something magical about being alone in nature, no trails, no chance of running into a human, just peace and solitude. It’s possible to seek this out while living in Seattle, but I would not say it’s easy or commonplace.
Note that the regulations also extend to road trips. I’ve certainly been able to find places to pull over on mountain roads leading to trailheads, but nice, secluded spots are not common. There are many established campgrounds, but that’s different from the experience I personally look for and they can get quite crowded in the Summer.
Cost
Due to the growing population, especially one consisting largely of tech workers, the cost of housing in Seattle has gone up drastically in recent years. I won’t get into the details since you can browse around Redfin or Zillow to get an idea.
While the prices are not yet on par with San Francisco or New York, they are headed in that direction.
Steepness / Relief
I am absolutely going to get criticized for this, but the reality is that the mountains surrounding Seattle are less dramatic than the Alps or Nepal. You can get a sense for this by browsing around Google Maps in 3D mode, or check out this article for a more rigorous analysis.
What this means is that, while you will certainly find incredible volcanic peaks such as Rainier, don’t expect the likes of Fitz Roy, Segla, or Seceda. The Picket Range is about as dramatic as it gets here.
It’s an incredible area for wildflowers, volcanic peaks, alpine lakes, and endless layers of mountains, but if you’re seeking Mordor or The Misty Mountains, you might find that the Pacific Northwest is not quite it.
Another factor that heavily impacts drama in composition is the presence or lack of trees. The peaks of Lofoten only go up to about 3000ft, which is where trails in the Pacific Northwest often start. After an additional 2000ft of gain, you will start to break out above the tree line, and the sections of mountains above that height will often make up most of your composition. You’re not likely to be able to use rivers as leading lines, since they are largely be obscured by the trees. You also won’t have the drama of a steep slope shooting up from the land or sea — just a mass of trees.
I love forests more than you can imagine, but this does make finding mountain compositions more challenging in my opinion.
A Matter of Taste
There’s one (nature-related) factor that I didn’t cover, and it’s something that is going to differ from person to person — what kind of nature feels like home to you. For some people this is not a factor, but if you’re like me, certain types of trees, flowers, grass, soil, or rock feel more like home and others do not feel quite right. The Pacific Northwest resonates with me more than almost anything in North America, but not quite as much as the landscapes of Northern Europe, likely because that is where I grew up. Perhaps I am drawn to a forest that feels more walkable and cozy, and less wild and rugged. Or, I seek wildflowers that I remember from childhood, even if they are less varied than the ones you find in the Northwest.
That being said, I am still exploring this and have not come to a definitive conclusion. I think everyone should explore this if it matters as much to them as it does to me. Try living in different places, and see what feels right. There is no place that’s objectively best, but there may be a place that feels most right to you — that may be the rainforests of the northwest, the deserts to the south, the boreal forests to the north, or a mountain range on another continent.
Conclusion
Seattle is, in my opinion, one of the best cities for a hiker and/or landscape photographer, but there are always trade-offs to be made.
Do you want wilderness that’s protected and regulated, or do you want the Freedom to Roam?
Do you want to live in a place where you can walk outside and be in nature, or are you okay with driving to such a place? How frequently are you realistically going to want to make the drive after you’ve done it a hundred times?
What kind of nature truly resonates with you? What are you willing to sacrifice to get there?
Another choice I haven’t brought up yet — do you hope to encounter wildlife while hiking, or do you want to not have to worry about food storage and other precautions?
Do you want an even warmer climate? Or do you want to see snow at your doorstep every Winter? (I think I would like more snow, myself.)
If you don’t mind a fairly populated area, long drives, high prices, and if the benefits of living in a large city are worth it to you or your work requires it, Seattle is one of the best in the world.
If you seek absolute freedom, peace, quiet, and solitude, I would recommend looking elsewhere.
If you were wondering about things like culture, in this post I wanted to cover primarily the outdoor adventure and landscape photography side of things, but I can say that I have met some wonderful people here. It’s a very casual city with lots of people who enjoy outdoor activities, microbrews, coffee, and having vegetable gardens.
Side node: Nomadlist is a good resource for comparing different cities.
As for me, for now I am enjoying life in the quietest and greenest neighborhood of Seattle. I am addicted to the view of the Puget Sound and the Olympics — for me it brings about a feeling of vastness, tranquillity, and adventure. I love walking and trail-running the local parks and watching the sun set over the mountains while sitting by the water.
But, I also feel a pull towards more remote, less populated areas. I get a little stressed out every time I drive through the urban sprawl, and more at ease once I’m out in nature or back in my quiet neighborhood. I also often find myself dreaming of the landscapes on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, and want to explore the idea of living in Europe at some point.
So, for now, the quest continues. I can’t say for sure if Seattle is where I will stay in the long run, but at the same time I acknowledge that I am very lucky to live here, and for many people I think this would be an ideal place to call home.