Local Setting in Ellensburg

Central Washington University lies in the veritable Shangri-La of Kittitas Valley, in the eastern foothills of the Cascade range. The campus is in the town of Ellensburg, a town with quiet tree lined streets, a well-known rodeo and arguably the world's highest per capita concentration of espresso stands. The local economy is vigorous, and revolves around growing hay for racehorses, education, building things, and various aspects of land management.

The Cascades and the semi-arid Columbia basin to the east provide a wide range of opportunities for recreation and geologic study. Geologic processes spectacularly manifest in the surrounding landscape include ongoing active tectonics and volcanism, earthquakes, continental and mountain glaciation, and catastrophic flooding by assorted fluids (water and lava being the end members).

Hiking, mountain biking, hunting and fishing, and activities involving snow are popular here, access to open spaces being a matter of a few minutes to hours. The peaks of the spectacular Stuart Range offer very fine alpine terrain for winter and spring skiing, hiking and climbing. Within a 100-mile radius of Ellensburg are several national parks and wilderness areas, including the beautiful Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area and Mt. Rainier National Park.

Ellensburg has a typical intermontane climate. Spring comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, summers are warm and dry, fall is typically perfect, and winters are cool with variable snow conditions. Because of the considerable topographic relief, one can to some extent choose a season; it is easy enough to find snow in the mountains in August, or rock climb in shorts in the basin in March (February would be dicey).