The Pacific Northwest: Marine Wildlife and Exploration

Participants fly into Seattle and meet their Global Works leaders! Once everyone has arrived, we head to a local Seattle hotel. We settle in, start getting to know one another, and establish goals for the weeks ahead.

We dive right into an incredible adventure as we hop a ferry and head to the San Juan Islands. We meet up with our local guide and begin an epic 3 day, 2 night sea-kayaking adventure. Our kayak guides teach us about the abundant wildlife in this area and help us look out for animals including seals and porpoises, bald eagles, falcons, otters, and, if we’re lucky, Orca whales! We hop from island to island, camping along stunning beaches. After the adventure comes to an end, we participate in a community service project at a local wildlife rehabilitation center. 

Board the ferry once again and travel back to Anacortes on the mainland and continue the drive south to our rustic cabins near the Snoqualmie River. During this chapter of the trip, we roll up our sleeves and get to work on several environmental restoration service projects. Projects include trail maintenance, conducting impact studies on microplastic pollutants, and land stewardship work in collaboration with native Co Salish tribal organizations.

Put on your hiking shoes and prepare for our wilderness adventure on the Olympic Peninsula. Professional backcountry guides meet us at the base of the Olympic National Forest to help us prepare for our 3 day, 2 night wilderness backpacking trip. We learn how to Leave No Trace and be totally self-sufficient in the backcountry. Our challenging route through the wilderness provides plenty of rewarding sights and opportunities to broaden our comfort zones. Expect to cover several miles of trail each day and to make do with less- we will pack all of our gear in and out!

We finish our program in Seattle to get a taste of the urban side of the Pacific Northwest. While here, we spend time exploring the most renowned sites the city has to offer – the Space Needle and the Chihuly Garden. And of course a trip to Seattle wouldn’t be complete without a visit to Pike’s Place Market! We also take a day to continue our environmental service work with a reforestation and restoration project, with an additional opportunity to explore beautiful trails in the Cascade Mountains.

We end this unforgettable journey with a final evening of group reflection and a delicious dinner, leaving the Pacific Northwest with a deeper connection to the environment and memories to last a lifetime.

There is no chaperoned group flight for this program. Airfare is not included in the tuition. We will provide a recommended window of arrival and departure times for the group.