Evergreen Escapes

A Seattle outdoor tour company, running since 2006

Evergreen Escapes is a Seattle-based company that runs its own guided day tours and multi-day trips into the outdoors of Washington and Oregon. The homepage calls it "The Pacific Northwest's Original Outdoor Tour Outfitter", established in 2006, and says it pioneered outdoor tours from Seattle that year and added Portland departures in 2010. From Seattle, the destinations on its menu are Mount Rainier (including Longmire), Mount St. Helens, North Cascades, Olympic National Park, Deception Pass and Whidbey Island, the San Juan Islands, Leavenworth, Snoqualmie Falls and the Yakima Valley wine country. From Portland, the menu lists the Columbia River Gorge, Mount St. Helens, the Oregon Coast and a Portland city tour. The homepage describes small-group tours departing daily from both cities year-round, while the contact page says Portland tours run on a private basis, so Portland visitors should check which applies to their date. Its guides are its own staff: the team page introduces its office staff and each of its guides by name.

Day tours, multi-day trips and themes

The Seattle menu groups day tours by theme: Visit the National Parks, Explore the Coasts & Islands, Escape to the Mountains and Taste Local Wines, alongside summer tours, winter tours and whale watching. Wine features in two combinations, Mount Rainier with the Yakima Valley and Snoqualmie Falls with Washington wine. A Whales + Wildlife Watching tour covers the marine side. The homepage also points to Snowy Adventures, winter tours from Seattle, and Small Town Charm, day tours that mix outdoor time with visits to Washington towns.

The multi-day menu has four trips: a 2-Day Mount Rainier National Park Tour, a 3-Day Olympic National Park Tour, a 4-Day San Juan Island multi-sport tour and a 5-Day Inn-to-Inn Sea Kayaking Tour.

The Seattle to Leavenworth Winter Day Tour page shows the level of detail the company gives. It runs 8:00a to 7:00p in winter only, from November to February, on Mondays and Thursdays, with Fridays added in December. The price is $255 per adult (18+) and $240 per youth aged 10 to 17, before Washington tax, and all participants must be 10 or older. The sample itinerary starts with downtown pickups at 7:30 to 8:00a, stops near Snoqualmie Pass at 9:30a for warm drinks and a beginner-friendly hike of 1.5 to 3 miles or a snowshoe walk of 1 to 2 miles, then gives about 3 hours on your own in the Bavarian-style town of Leavenworth from 1:00 to 4:00p before the drive back. The page says lunch is not included on this tour, because guests eat in town, and that snowshoes and trekking poles are provided. The page explains the choice of destination: in winter the company heads east of the Cascades, where the rainshadow keeps the weather drier or snowier than Seattle, and Leavenworth's evening holiday light display, Blackbird Island and the 55+ shops the page counts in town fill the free time. The drive takes about 3 hours each way, with a restroom stop on the way back.

On the day: pickups, guides, food and vans

Hotel pickup is part of every tour on the site. For Leavenworth, the company collects guests anywhere downtown in Seattle, with centralized pickups at named hotels in Bellevue and Issaquah on request, and says the last pickup is usually at the Sheraton Grand. It phones the day before to confirm the pickup time. Guests outside those areas can meet at the office with advance notice.

The Our Travel Values page describes an all-inclusive day: pickup where you are staying, "a delicious, organic, local lunch (on day trips)", snacks, drinks, local coffee, tea and baked goods, and entrance and tasting fees. It says the company can accommodate most dietary preferences and needs, and that it brings any gear needed. A banner on the homepage offers hiking boot rentals and complimentary layers to borrow.

Groups are small. The Leavenworth page gives a group size of ten or fewer and explains that most vehicles are built for 15 people but only ten seats are sold. The values page says the fleet is 12-passenger Mercedes-Benz Sprinters and 15-passenger Ford Transit vans. Guides, the homepage says, are TripAdvisor "Hall of Fame" naturalist guides, and the values page says they are "Leave No Trace" certified, that the office is Enviro-Star certified, and that the company is permitted and insured, including a permit to go beyond a mile from the vehicle in Mount Rainier National Park. Each trip, according to the same page, starts with the guide asking what the group most wants to see.

Booking, private trips and support

Tours are booked through Seattle and Portland calendars on the site. Private departures are offered for any tour through a request form or by phone, and there is a corporate and group section aimed at families, coworkers and conference groups. Gift certificates are sold, and the resources menu links to a FAQ, a packing guide, boot rentals, pickup zones and terms and conditions. Contact is by phone at 206-650-5795 or by email at bookings@evergreenescapes.com.

The values page cites nearly 1,400 TripAdvisor reviews, and the homepage shows a rotating selection of TripAdvisor and Google reviews, many naming individual guides. Those are reviews the company chose to display.

What the pages leave open, and who it suits

The tour and values pages do not state the cancellation and refund rules; they sit in the linked terms and conditions, so it is worth reading them before booking a winter trip that depends on road and snow conditions. The Leavenworth page is the one with a full price and schedule on it, so the cost of the national park day tours and the multi-day trips has to be checked on their own pages. The Portland wording differs between the homepage and the contact page, as noted above.

Evergreen Escapes suits travelers staying in Seattle who want a full, looked-after day in the mountains or national parks without driving, with food, gear and a small group included, and those who want to extend that into a multi-day park or kayaking trip. Children under 10 cannot join the Leavenworth tour, and travelers who want a lunch stop in a restaurant should check each tour's inclusions. For a small-group day out of the city with a naturalist guide, the offer is clearly laid out.