I want to move to OR/WA!

Hey folks, Im new here :) currently live in Ark, went on a road trip around WA and OR and fell in LOVE! Hubs and I are thinking about moving out that way wth our 2 kids. Lived in Utah and Alaska and have loved the abundant and easily accessable outdoor life. Arkansas is great, cheap, has lots of outdoors stuff. BUT the climbing gym situation is sad here and I can't take 3+ hours for the 1-way drive to climb from where I live :( So we're looking for a place to go that has some humidity (read not high desert, that's what killed me in UT), lots of close climbing, hopefully a good climbing gym, and easy access to some backcountry. At a reasonable price. Ha every climbers dream...

So, locals... Where in OR and WA is a good place for a small family to live, climb and work? No large cities, prefer near the coast, I think?? What do YOU think?? Gimme your pro/con list :)

What kind of climbing do you want to be close to?

Does coast mean ocean, or would other waterways (Puget Sound) be acceptable?

Mostly sport, on the easier end (5.10 or easier). My older child expresses some interest in climbing, so I'd ike to be able to take him.

Inlets work!! We spent a couple of days in Sequim and my husband thought that place was great. Within an hour of ocean water would be great :)

I've only been here for a year, so take my advice with that grain of salt.

The only two large-ish sport areas in Western Washington I can think of are the Exits (38 and 32 off I-90) and Mount Erie (up by Anacortes & the San Juan islands). Living in Seattle, you can usually get to Exit 38 within an hour except in the worst rush-hour traffic. I guess Exit 32 will usually take the same amount of time, since the hike in is longer.

What do you consider a large city? I assume Seattle is disqualified, since it's the largest city around. Finding work near Mount Erie might be quite difficult, though, depending on your line of work.

Yea, no Seattle or Portland. I am a chemist, so usually jobs are near cities/larger towns. Outskirts of Seattle I could find a job, but I imagine housing is much more expensive than in other areas.

At least in WA, you may have a hard time finding 'coast' and 'good climbing' together in the same place. Most of the rock on the Olympic Peninsula tends to be of low quality and is wet for most the year. One area that does come to mind is the Anacortes area. You'd be right on the water, yet Mount Erie is a ~10 minute drive from town. Anacortes is a nice town, fairly small and seems to have a good community feel, though I've never lived there. Mount Erie is fun climbing and would make a good local crag with easier climbing and easy top-rope access, plus you have good access to the North Cascade Highway in the summer when you want to go a little further afield. There is a brand new climbing gym that just opened in Burlington, which is ~20 minutes from town. I don't know about prices/cost of living in Anacortes. In general, cost of living Western WA tends to be higher than many other places in the country - it's definitely more expensive than Utah, for example.

Madirock wrote: not high desert...lots of close climbing...hopefully a good climbing gym...and easy access to some backcountry. At a reasonable price....No large cities, prefer near the coast

That's a tricky set of criteria to meet, but it does narrow down the options nicely. To hit all those criteria, you are going to want to look most closely at western Washington along the I-5 corridor between Everett and Bellingham. This is a very scenic area, with good access to climbing (lots of granite), backcountry (North Cascades!), and water (Puget Sounds, San Juan Islands). Much of the best climbing around there is granite trad, so you'd probably want to consider learning that. "Reasonable price" is relative; expensive compared to Arkansas, but way cheaper that Seattle. If you want climbing gym access, look at areas around Everett, Burlington, and Bellingham; these are the places with gyms. There are all sorts of options around each of these areas to choose how big a town you want, how close to mountains vs. water. As Tobin mentioned above, Anacortes would be pretty optimal.

Otherwise, you've eliminated pretty much the rest of the PNW. if you are willing to compromise on the climate a go somewhere a bit drier, Leavenworth/Wenatchee and Bend are perfect.

Hood River, OR

Pros:
Good community
Good food and beer
Waterfront on the Columbia
Easy access to good nearby climbing and a good spot to access the east side of both WA and OR
Good outdoor activities very nearby (hiking,climbing,biking,watersports.....)

Cons:
Can be expensive
Can be crowded as it is a recreational destination
May be a bit dry for you

The pros and cons for Bend are almost identical except it will definitely be dry and substitute the lil' Deschutes with the mighty Columbia

If you want to live near Portland, Oregon City is a cool little place with a ton of history that will be a good place to buy a house (if you can). The climbing in and around Portland is plentiful but not what I would consider world class.

Pros:
Good community
Awesome library
15 miles from Portland (which has 8 climbing gyms....seriously)
middle ground between the ocean, the mountains and the desert
Smallish historic city but close to lots of modern culture
Substantially easier to find reasonable housing compared to Portland
It's not Vancouver, WA or Gresham, OR
Easy access to good regional craglets
At the end of the Clackamas river which offers a lot of good outdoor stuff
Lots of beer. Like alot alot
Lots of marijuana. Like a shit ton
The hipsters usually stay in Portland
The rednecks usually stay in Estacada
Has a random Jetsons style elevator in downtown (check it out)

Cons:
The riverfront restoration won't be completed for quite awhile and as it sits now it is a gash on the earth
sometimes the hipster and redneck are found to come into the city

For Washington look at Leavenworth or Wenatchee. Small towns, and excellent sport, trad, bouldering and alpine. Much dryer and more moderate than western Wa.

For Oregon, Bend! Same deal. Abundance of climbing and a good gym.

No coast obviously for either of these, but there are rivers and you are not to far if you crave the water.

Best of luck.

Having now lived both in Seattle and Spokane I have to say that the sport climbing in Spokane is superior to that of the west side. It is easily accessible, there is a large range of grades, and is on a variety of different rock. You also have access to tons of skiing and decent backcountry climbing just over the border in Idaho. Granted the trad climbing, bouldering, and backcountry climbing are far better on the west side. Spokane only adds an hour or two onto the drives that Western washington climbers face. Less if the traffic is bad. Also don't forget you are only a few hours from the multitude of backcountry granite in Montana and Idaho It is very affordable and has some nice places to live, plus it is big enough to find a job in your field and still live in the forested outskirts. Fair warning, in two years of living there my car was broken into three times and I was jumped walking home through downtown one night. I like living in Seattle but if someone offered me the same paying job that I have now to move back to Spokane I just might bite. It is a good five hours from the coast so that one is a tough sell for your criteria. I can be surfing in two and a half hours from my door in seattle and jog to a sand beach with views of the olympics(albiet it is crowded as fuck) I will say the amount of river and lake swimming and fishing spots in eastern washington almost make up for the lack of ocean. JCM is right in that leavenworth takes the cake over them all but good luck getting a chemist gig in little fake bavaria. I will imagine I will catch some flack for this considering most west side folks think it is some sort of mad max in thunderdome land on the east side but I liked living there and seemed worth you taking a look at if you are checking out the PNW

Did you get jumped and your car broken into in Seattle or Spokane?

There is pretty good skiing.

It's not SLC or Boulder.

You're right Scoop, it's not SLC or Boulder.
Nothing to see here folks. Move away. I hear there's a free sprinter in CO somewhere.

I agree. Spokane is ideal for climbing.

And it always rains here, too. The worst part is when you go somewhere else and you're used to the temperatures staying between 50 and 80, so anything outside of that feels heinous.

I wouldn't discount Olympia, its a lot more family friendly than up north. We have a decent gym here and more in Tacoma. Farther from the North Cascades, closer to the Olympics. Less than 2 hours to the Exits and midway between Squamish and Smith. Closer to Seattle than Portland but the drive time is more similar than you'd think.

No one's mentioned Bellingham yet, definitely worth considering. Less than 2 hours to Squamish and the North Cascades both, and skiing up at Baker is pretty good if you like heavy pow.

Anacortes is a good option for your situation. You'd be living right near the ferry terminal so easy access to the islands for family fun, bike tours, etc. Mt Erie is in your back yard which has decent climbing for a local area, and tons of TR terrain for the kids. Truly, the best part of living there would be waking up and getting the seriously legendary muffins from 'The Store'...

Dang you guys are super helpful :D

A few years ago, we almost moved up to the Couer D'alene area... That was right before we found out we were (surprise) preggo. Decided to stay where we were because our plan for ID was to be skibums for a while lol. But we had some really good friends move up there without us and it would be cool to live closeish to them again... Which is making Spokane kind of more appealing than anywhere else.

Where are good places to live? Cause I def could find a great job there, too. Lots of opportunity for someone with my skillset. And cost of living is low. No ocean, but its just a drive away. Rock is more important, obviously ;)

Redmond, OR sounds like a place we could fit onto well, too...

I like highway 2, east of Monroe, west of Stevens Pass, better than anywhere else in the country. I surf, I climb, and I'm in to snowsports. It's a 3 hour drive minimum to the surf - but in WA it's lower on the totem pole than snowboarding, climbing, boating - practically everything. I won't specifically mention the crag by name, lest I get crucified.. Close to some of the best snow and terrain ever, and the people are wonderful, getting better all the time as more and more outdoors folk crowd out the Trumpeteers. The prices are right, you can get a ton for your money the more of a drive you're willing to do to work.

Traffic can suck, but living there makes it easier to avoid it, and 9 times out of 10 i'd be sitting in it anyway. There's still a lot of drug addicts, and property theft is still a problem at trailheads. Monroe has a redneck flavor.

But I might check it out if I were you :)

I was robbed and jumped in spokane not seattle. Never had an issue in ballard. Downtown Spokane can be a little rough sometimes but just don't leave bags in your car when you are at the gym and you should be fine. I lived in the Perry district. I liked living there and seemed like a nice neighborhood to raise a family and still be able to walk home after a few too many pints at the lantern or the perry street brewery. Spokane is strange in that a quite suburban neighborhood near the city can turn to shit in about a block. This goes for browns edition,perry district, peaceful valley, river front etc... I lived up north for a while which was also nice. There are some very lovely valleys up by mt spokane and the commute into town is easy. It is also possible up north to get some lake front property that is still reasonable. If I were to move back I would probably go out near nine mile ( cheap, pretty nice, close to good food and beer, easy to do after work sessions at the creek) Let me know if you have any other questions and I can help you out best I can