Wenatchee, WA Outdoor Activities

The Wenatchee River winds along 85-year-old Leavenworth Golf Club’s 18-hole, par 71 course, which features a sculpted landscape of arboreal alleyways and a backdrop of mountain peaks. The river runs the length of holes 6 and 11, forcing golf balls to choose between finishing at the hole or fulfilling dreams of becoming fishing bobbers. Two ponds come into play on five other holes, and stately pines line most of the course’s emerald fairways.

Golfers looking to improve their swing mechanics can enroll in lessons with a PGA professional or PGA and LPGA assistant professionals. Before jump-starting their day on the course, club guests can fuel up with a hearty country-style meal at The Wild Huckleberry.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 71 course
• Length of 5,711 yards from the farthest set of tees
• Course rating of 67.0 from the farthest set of tees
• Slope rating of 116 from the farthest set of tees
• See the scorecard

Having grown weary of the Texas tropes of football and heavy-handed competition, James Moore sought some kind of escape. At the advice of his father, he enrolled in Prescott College in Arizona for its unorthodox and outdoorsy approach to education. The school's recreation program lured James to Moab, Utah, where he received his first taste of whitewater rafting. After 30 days hiking the red-rock country, rafting the Green River, and living off peanut butter and freeze-dried dinners, James was not convinced the outdoors were his calling. He struggled to develop survival skills or cultivate an innate sense of how to navigate the wilderness. After one year at Prescott, he found himself returning to Texas.

It was a three-day kayaking trip with his father and brother-in-law on the Guadalupe River that showed James that working together and challenging themselves in such exhilarating conditions could bring people closer to each other and to nature. It wasn't long before he was off again, cramming all his earthly possessions into his pastel-blue '74 Ford Pinto and departing for Western Washington University in Bellingham. Once there, his love affair with the outdoors came to fruition while hiking the lush forests and rafting the bucking rapids of the Pacific Northwest. He was finally at ease in his surroundings.

Orion River Expeditions is the living continuation of James's journey and how he has ultimately solidified his relationship with the great outdoors and his community. He and his team lead explorers down seven of the Pacific Northwest's most scenic and adventuresome rivers, from the Wenatchee in Washington to the Deschutes in Oregon. Each trip strives to bring participants closer to their fellow passengers and their natural surroundings.

In the calm waters around the grassy shores of Waterfront Park and Blackbird Island, people glide on standup paddleboards as experienced staff guides their paddles and trajectory, and help them balance. Elsewhere on the river, groups float by in durable tubes outfitted with hammock seats and backrests, or churn the river currents in inflatable kayaks. Tube Leavenworth's staffers oversee all of these excursions on a shallow stretch of the Wenatchee River. Guides also direct many of their customers to the warm interiors of Der Hinterhof, where local and traveling artists fill the courtyard with live music. At the Gypsy Café, casual fare mingles with craft draughts, and representatives from Washington breweries often visit to explain the secrets of their craft and debunk anti-beer propaganda spread by martini lobbyists.

For more than 40 years, the trained and professional pilots at Chelan Seaplanes have been floating passengers through the air on exotic day trips and scenic charter flights. Flights ferry passengers the 25 minutes back and forth to Stehekin, giving them unique views of the Lake Chelan Valley and the snow-topped Cascade Mountains. Passengers pick and choose from a collection of diverse sightseeing tours or climb aboard Chelan's amphibious aircraft for a chartered flight to Seattle and British Columbia. Clyde and his son, Shane, also lead adventurous outdoorsmen on a diverse collection of day-trip packages. Trips fuse flying with an afternoon of kayaking, fly fishing, hiking, or river-rafting, ferrying guests back at the end of the day full of stories about meeting celebrity waterfowl.

[[m:####Adventure Aviation Trike Flights The duo of Robe “Bedo” Lyons and John “Wink” Winkenwader founded Adventure Aviation Trike Flights in 2007 to share their love of small-scale aviation with first-time fliers and those looking to get certified. The piloting pals take to the skies in light sport-weight trikes, which are open-air vehicles with glider wings that can make safe takeoffs and landings on three wheels or on pontoons. Instructional discovery flights take visitors up for jaunts over Lake Chelan, where they can take in scenic vistas and verify the cotton count of passing clouds. Those wishing to take on a solo career can opt for complete flight-certification courses, including expert ground-school and one-on-one flight instruction.:m]]

For more than 20 years, The Evening Hatch's CPR- and first aid–certified guides have led relaxing full- and half-day river tours down the scenic Yakima and Klickitat Rivers. Guides offer info and anecdotes about the varied flora, fauna, and history of the area, and rafts frequently stop along the river to drop off loot plundered from other rafts and take on more food and drink.