Visit the spectacular Pacific Northwest in its finest season on this 11-day Venture to the state of Washington. We will visit the Olympic Peninsula, Puget Sound, the Cascade Mountains, and the Columbia River Basin, covering a vast variety of habitats both wet and dry, from scenic, rocky cliff coastlines to above the treeline, and from rain forest to high desert. Highlights will include visits to both Olympic and Mt. Rainier National Parks, where we will search the high elevations for such specialties as Clark’s Nutcracker, Canada Jay, Mountain Bluebird and Sooty Grouse, among many others. Participants will also enjoy an all-day pelagic trip exploring the submarine Gray’s Canyon, located on the edge of the Continental Shelf, where we should see an excellent variety of pelagic birds such as Black-footed Albatross, Red Phalarope, South Polar Skua plus several species of shearwaters and storm-petrels, and marine mammals including whales, porpoises, sea lions and seals. Expect to see many new birds on this Venture which should yield a total of close to 200 species!