Best Washington hiking books?

[justpeachy]

For Oregon, I rely most heavily on Sullivan's hiking books, plus a handful of others. I really don't have anything that covers Washington state. Is there a particular series, or even just one must-have book for Washington that people would recommend? Region doesn't matter, although of course I'd be most interested in the Cascades and Olympic Peninsula.

[retired jerry]

I've used "102 hikes in the Alpine Lakes, South Cascades, and Olympics" by Ira Spring and Harvey Manning for years.

[BCJ]

I use the Foghorn Outdoors (I think they changed to Moon something or other) "Pacific NW Hiking". It doesn't have the depth of information that some of the others have, but it does have about 1200 hikes listed so it gives me a good idea of what I want to go do and then I can research it if I need more information (usually I don't need to as all of the basics are in there). I have a newer and older copy; one is in my car at all times.

[sarbar]

I have been a fan of the Dayhike! series by Sasquatch books. Usually they are acurate.

On the other hand, I live for the 40 year old or more Manning/Spring books for finding old trails.

For Olympics I use the Erik Molvar book by Falcon. For Rainier the Falcon one is not as good as the old Spring/Manning book.

[fettster]

You might look at '100 Hikes in WA's S. Cascades & Olympics' by Spring and Manning since it covers the part of the WA Cascades closest to Oregon as well as the Olympics. My biggest complaint for the 3rd Edition that I have is that the maps do not mark any of the mileages or key elevations like Sullivan does, though the authors do list the overall elevation and mileage for each of the hikes. I got it at REI a few years back so you can probably browse through a copy there. It is published by The Mountaineers books.

[Grannyhiker]

If there's a single book for Washington (and there very well may be), I am not familiar with it. I have the complete collection of the Manning/Spring "100 Hikes" books, the editions published in the late 1980's. One thing I've found out from this forum: never get rid of old hiking books! You can check the Washington Trails Association website's "Find a Trail" feature at http://www.wta.org/go-hiking.

[sarbar]

I'll add - if you have Spring/Manning books keep them. They are all for the most part out of print now. THis year brought the Mountainieers new dayhiking series that is replacing most of those books. While the new books are ok they tend to be short in descriptions of trails and have some bad mistakes. (Ie...the maps use TOPO and TOPO has some big mistakes in WA.)

[BCJ]

Below is a link to the book I use that covers all of Oregon and Washington (there are also versions that separate the two). It rates more than 1000 trails on a scale of 1-5 for difficulty and 1-10 on scenic value and gives good info on how to get there and what the permit situation is. It doesn't give elevation gain stats for all hikes. It's a good book for getting an idea of where you want to go or for keeping in the car.
http://www.amazon.com/Foghorn-Outdoors- ... 826&sr=1-1