It's not surprising there are more than 30 listings in the local phone book for sporting goods stores, outdoor guides and charters. Nor is it any jolt that six local clubs regularly schedule hikes or cross-country ski outings. From a home in Clark County, there's something to do outdoors every day of the year.
Sturgeon angling in the lower Columbia River is a year-round activity.
Fishing seasons never close on some Southwest Washington lakes and reservoirs. The low-elevation trails in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area are free of snow except during short periods in the dead of winter. And during those wintry periods, there are four cross-country ski trail networks in the southern Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Clark County outdoor enthusiasts are two hours from the ocean, or the shrub-steppe drylands of Eastern Washington. Within 90 minutes, it's possible to be hiking deep underground in a huge cave, or on the flanks of an active volcano.