Seattle Field Guide: Explore Nature in the City

"Dipping into these pages, our sense of the urban community expands to include sea stars, starlight, and the array of life in between." -- Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of Crow Planet and Rooted

• Seasonal guide to 38 urban outings rooted in discovering nature
• Each activity indicates the terrain, level of effort, distance, transit and parking information, and amenities available at the destination
• Useful at-a-glance planning chart helps readers pick a location and timeframe

Seattle Field Guide is a fun, accessible, and inspiring guide to 38 nature-filled outings across the greater Seattle area--perfect for all ages and experience levels. Whether you have a free afternoon or a full day to explore, nature writers Maria Dolan and Kathryn True offer seasonal adventures that reveal the wild wonders hidden in the city’s parks, shorelines, greenways, and neighborhoods.

From Broadview to Rainier Beach and Discovery Park to Seward Park, readers will find easy-to-follow, seasonally appropriate ideas for kayaking with herons, mushroom hunting in city parks, biking through salmon restoration sites, identifying lichens in historic cemeteries, and listening for frog songs in quiet urban wetlands. Each outing includes guidance on terrain, effort level, travel distance, transit options, and available amenities--plus tips on what to bring and when to go.

With colorful photos, maps, natural history sidebars, and cultural insights, this guide connects readers to the natural and human stories woven into Seattle’s landscape. Seattle Field Guide is your go-to companion for discovering nearby nature and making every season an opportunity to explore.

Maria Dolan has written about bats, orcas, ocean acidification, living shorelines, Vaux’s Swifts, and the smell of a moose for publications including Slate, Smithsonian, CityLab, the Seattle Times, Sierra, Seattle Magazine, Ensia, and Salon. She lives in Seattle. Visit her online at mariadolan.org or on Instagram @bookish_md

Kathryn True embraces her naturalist tendencies through hiking, birding, community science, and swimming in cold mountain lakes. She blogs about the natural world for Vashon Nature Center and authored a Seattle Times series called "Natural Wanders." Her work has also appeared in Sunset and Alaska Airlines Magazine. She lives on Vashon Island, WA. Visit her online at kathryntrue.com or on Instagram @trueislander63