Urban Landscape, Native Landscape: Nature

Washington
Ashland Lakes
Big Four Ice Caves
Boardman Lake
Columbia National Wildlife Refuge
Cowiche Canyon
Dishman Hills Natural Area
Frenchman Coulee
Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park
Hazel Wolf Wetlands Preserve
Heather Lake
Kelcema Lake
Lake 22
Larrabee State Park
Pinnacle Lake
Middle Fork Snoqualmie River
Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve
Mount Pilchuck
Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge
South Fork Sauk River
South Fork Stillaguamish River

Oregon
Darlingtonia State Natural Site
Heceta Head Lighthouse State Scenic Viewpoint
Multnomah Falls
Wahkeena Falls
Warm Springs Indian Reservation
Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area

California
False Klamath Cove
Joshua Tree National Park
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park

Montana
Yellowstone National Park

South Africa
Bontebok National Park
De Hoop Nature Reserve
Fernkloof Nature Reserve
Geelkop Private Nature Reserve
Kogelberg Nature Reserve
Marloth Nature Reserve
Montagu Nature Garden
Vrolijkheid Nature Reserve

About This Blog

This blog began in 2008 as Metropolitan Gardens to provide information on gardening in Seattle & places like it. Click on Gardening in Cascadia. The blog expanded to include Parks P-Patches Public Gardens in the US, Canada & Europe. Then Nature was added. (The difference between nature & gardens is intent. Nature happens. Gardens are planned.) Many recent posts are not about Seattle, or even Cascadia. They are Urban Landscape: streetscape & architecture. Cascadia is the region including the Cascade Mountains of Washington & Oregon. If you want to contact the blogger, leave a message in comments. Comments are moderated & private messages will not be posted.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.