Reconnect with Outdoor Art and Creative Culture

Submitted by Experience Olympia & Beyond

Pack the car with friends and family and reconnect with your creative side along the Thurston Bountiful Byway. Small communities are the backbone of our region with so many stories to share. Bring your sense of adventure and immerse yourself in all the region has to offer. Remember to plan ahead
and practice safe travel.

Allow an hour to explore historic downtown Tenino, WA.

Tenino is famous for its sandstone; not only was it used in many buildings throughout Tenino, but it was also shipped to many sites around the Northwest for use in buildings, including the old Thurston County Courthouse and the Theodore Jacobson Observatory at the University of Washington. Plan for an additional hour to visit the Tenino Depot Museum and learn more about Tenino’s wooden-money foray during the Great Depression.

Before leaving Tenino, stop in at Don Juan’s Mexican Kitchen and pick up some Wet Burritos to go. Just minutes down the road, enjoy a picnic lunch at Sandstone Distillery, the first of its kind in Thurston County since the Prohibition. Owner, John Bourdon, takes great pride in each hand-crafted batch of spirits using locally-sourced grains. Ask him about the tools he displays on his wall!

A day trip to Rainier means stopping by the Main Street Cookie Company! They are a no-compromise, finest-quality ingredient, always from scratch bakery. They are artisan cookie bakers, and their slogan is “We Bake With BUTTER,” which means sweet cream butter, period. Main Street Cookies are a 100% Real Food Ingredients product, where they batch from scratch and bake their cookies fresh, in-house, every retail business day.

Enjoy an afternoon adventure to the Monarch Sculpture Park, upholding the legacy of fine art and sculpture in nature. The park connects to the historic Chehalis Western Trail,  formerly a railroad owned by the Weyerhaeuser Chehalis Western Railroad until the mid-1980’s. Take in the many different ecosystems, wetlands, forests, farmlands, prairies, rivers and lakes along the way.

If you are looking for a dinner spot, head to Hearthfire Grill, a pristine waterfront setting at the edge of the Port of Olympia provides fine seafood and Northwest fare to sunset views.