Three tulip seasons

2026-05-14

Washington spring is genuinely stunning in a way that still catches me off guard. Everything blooms at once — the cherry blossoms, the dogwoods, the farmers market stalls — and then the Skagit Valley turns into a color field for about three weeks before it's over. I've now gone three years in a row, and each time I've meant it a little more.

2024 — with my dad

My dad came to visit and I wanted to show him something that felt specifically Pacific Northwest. The tulip fields in Mount Vernon were an obvious answer. We drove up on a bright March day, walked through rows of pink and red and yellow, and took a lot of photos. It was one of those trips that isn't elaborate but lands exactly right.

Standing under the Tulip Town sign in a sea of pink tulips, mountains and blue sky behind

Selfie with my dad in front of a massive field of red tulips — My dad and me in the red field. One of my favorite photos from his visit.

2025 — on the way back from Tour de Lopez

Tour de Lopez is an annual bike ride on Lopez Island that I've been doing with friends. The ferry back from the San Juans passes through Anacortes, which puts you twenty minutes from the tulip fields. In 2025 we stopped on the way home — tired from two days of cycling, still in bike clothes — and wandered through the rows for an hour. It felt like a bonus.

2026 — we actually stayed for it

This year we planned around it. After Tour de Lopez, instead of rushing back to Seattle, a few of us went to the fields on purpose — not as a quick detour but as the point. We spent a real afternoon there. The mountains were out. The rows were every color. I stopped trying to see everything and just stood in one spot for a while.

Wide view of multicolored tulip rows with snow-capped mountains in the background

Two of us leaning on a fence with yellow tulips in the foreground and a windmill behind

Back in Seattle, the farmers markets were full of the same tulips — and lilies, ranunculus, whatever else was in that week. I started buying them regularly and making bouquets for things I had to go to. Dinner at a friend's place, a birthday, a casual gathering — I'd show up with flowers because the season felt too good not to share.

A bouquet of pink tulips and lilies in a glass vase on my desk — The one that stayed home.

Tulip season in Washington is maybe three weeks long. You have to decide to show up for it.