The Daily Outside Monday: PNW Climate Week Opens, Fleet Feet Run
Monday is less about escaping the week than setting its direction, whether that means asking better questions on Mount Rainier, imagining a more resilient South Sound, or simply lacing up your shoes and heading out the door.
Paradise, one question at a time
Paradise Ranger Guided Walk
Monday, July 13, 2026 • 2–3:30 p.m.
Meet at the flagpole beside the Jackson Visitor Center plaza
Paradise, Mount Rainier National Park
Free guided walk • Park entrance fee required • Outdoor • Up to 1.5 miles on paved, easy-to-moderate trails
Mount Rainier tends to command the horizon, but this ranger-led walk makes room for the details that often disappear beneath all that grandeur. Over 90 minutes and up to 1.5 miles, a National Park Service ranger guides visitors through changing questions drawn from the mountain’s natural and human history. One walk may linger on glaciers and volcanic geology; another may follow the brief brilliance of the subalpine growing season, the movement of wildlife through the meadows, or the long relationship between people and Tahoma. The route stays on paved trails, though elevation and rolling grades can add effort. It’s less a formal lecture than a conversation with the landscape, where every bend offers another reason to look again.
Bring water, sun protection, and layers for rapidly changing mountain weather. Pets are not permitted on park trails.
More info: Mount Rainier National Park
PNW Climate Week: Tacoma Opening Ceremony & Panel — Green & Blue: Building a Climate Economy in the South Sound
Monday, July 13, 2026 • 4:30–6:30 p.m.
Thomas Hall, University of Puget Sound
3380 N. 13th St., Tacoma
Free • Registration required • Indoor
Climate conversations often begin with problems. PNW Climate Week begins with possibilities. As the first cross-regional climate week in North America, the weeklong series connects communities across the Pacific Northwest to spotlight practical solutions already taking shape in neighborhoods, businesses, classrooms, forests, farms, and shorelines. Tacoma opens the regional celebration with an evening panel exploring how the South Sound’s “green” and “blue” economies are creating new opportunities through clean energy, sustainable maritime industries, workforce development, habitat restoration, and community partnerships.
Hosted at the University of Puget Sound, the discussion brings together leaders from Washington Maritime Blue, the Washington State Department of Commerce, the Washington Climate Corps Network, EnerCity Collaborative, the Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County, and the university to examine how climate resilience and economic vitality can grow together. Rather than treating sustainability as a distant aspiration, the panel focuses on projects already underway across the region and invites residents to become part of the conversation. It’s a fitting kickoff to a week built around a simple but powerful idea: the most meaningful climate solutions often begin close to home, where local knowledge, collaboration, and everyday action can create lasting change.
More info: PNW Climate Week
Monday finds its stride
Fun Run Mondays
Monday, July 13, 2026 • 6–7:30 p.m.
Fleet Feet Tacoma
3812 N. 26th St., Tacoma
Free • Drop-in • Outdoor • Three- to five-mile group run • All experience levels welcome
Monday can arrive carrying all the grace of a filing cabinet, which may be why Fleet Feet Tacoma sends runners out into the neighborhood before the week gets too comfortable. The weekly Run Club gathers outside the Proctor store for a relaxed three- to five-mile route through Tacoma, welcoming everyone from first-timers building consistency to longtime runners looking for familiar faces and a little accountability. The emphasis is less on speed than showing up, finding a sustainable pace, and letting conversation carry part of the distance. It’s an easy way to trade the day’s accumulated static for fresh air, moving feet, and the quiet satisfaction of beginning the week already in motion.
More info: Fleet Feet Tacoma
Afterward, head over to Peaks & Pints
By Monday evening, your week may already be headed in a different direction. Perhaps you tcaught a ranger’s hat blowing in the wind, joined a conversation about the South Sound’s climate future, or logged a few easy miles through the neighborhood with Fleet Feet. None of it was about racing to the finish. It was about starting well.
Find a seat and raise a pint of our house Lumberbeard Brewing Cut-Off Flannel IPA or a glass of our house Finnriver Buckhorn Dry Cider. Then let the conversation continue over another thoughtfully crafted pour. Funny how the weeks that unfold best often begin with a little curiosity, a little movement, and a place where good ideas have room to breathe.
LINK: The Daily Outside explained
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
