You have chosen a wonderful location for your vacation and Hood Canal Vacation Rentals is pleased to provide you with exceptional vacation rental accommodations during your visit to an area that has some of the most beautiful scenery and outdoor recreation activity in the world.

Nearly 90 miles long and having 240 miles of shoreline, Hood Canal is nestled against the foothills of the Olympic Mountains and the Olympic National Forest which boasts a breathtaking rainforest. The area is unspoiled by heavy population so it is teaming with some of the richest wildlife and natural beauty one can find anywhere. Walking along the shores of Hood Canal you will be surprised by how many oysters there are, but not just oysters. Visit one of the shellfish gathering spots at Potlatch State Park or Twanoh State Park and dig a little bit and you will find a bounty of shellfish, including butter clams, manila clams, littleneck and horse clams as well. If you are up to it, dig a little deeper and you might catch the powerful and elusive geoduck, the largest burrowing bivalves on Earth! These little neighbors of ours can live up to 100 years! If you’d rather, you can toss out your crab pot and perhaps catch some of the most delicious crab found anywhere, the sweet Hood Canal Dungeness Crab.

Shellfish is not all you will find here, because Hood Canal is a haven for all sorts of wildlife. There are plenty of opportunities to capture a glimpse of our local deer, or even spot some of our many nesting Bald Eagles as well as the hundreds of other bird species that live on or migrate to Hood Canal.

Mason County and the Olympic National Forest offer some of the best hiking and nature observing you can find anywhere. If you’re up to a good hike, step on up to sparkling Lake Cushman where you can see the Pacific Ocean, Puget Sound, five Cascade Mountain volcanoes and more than a dozen saw-toothed Olympic Mountain peaks.

If you are looking for a someplace a little less steep, visit the Hood Canal-Theler Wetlands. This is a spectacular trail system right next to Belfair at the end of the Hood Canal. The Theler Wetlands has four miles of barrier-free, wheelchair accessible trails. This is one of the gems of the Hood Canal and visitors walking along the trails can view native plant gardens, totem and cedar sculptures and observe wild salmon, river otters, eagles, foxes, dear and over a hundred and fifty species of birds. This nature conservatory offers the Theler Education Center, interpretive signs and observation platforms making this tidal marsh a cherished part of our community and visited by over 150,000 visitors that come here each year.

To add to the blessings we already share, Belfair and Mason County will be home to the brand new Pacific Northwest Salmon Center opening in 2005-2006. The mission of the salmon center is to establish and conduct a science center which will enhance the public knowledge and appreciation of Salmon and ecosystem health through leading edge research, interactive education, accessible information, a dynamic museum, unique displays, environmental seminars and tours, a Wild Salmon Hall of Fame, and other means. This $18 million dollar complex host nearly 500,000 visitors each year and will reside next to the Theler Center, making it one of the largest nature education centers in the Pacific Northwest.

If all this is not enough, you can head to the Puget Sound side of Mason County and visit captivating Case Inlet. This waterway is an exceptional way to see the scenic beauty of the region and is a favorite destination for boaters and saltwater recreationists. Sailing this beautiful waterway, you can see a marvelous arrangement of bays and passages and an unparalleled view of Mt. Rainer. One of the most visible signs you will see is the absence of population, industry or interference with what nature has blessed us with. Since its discovery, much of Mason County including Case Inlet has remained virtually unchanged over the years, and this is verifiable by the population density. With 967 square miles, and a population of about 54,000, that means we have only have 56 people per square mile and only one incorporated town!

With the little Village of Allyn at the north end, the waterway is dotted with marvelous little islands, including Treasure Island, Stretch Island and the wonderful Harstine Island featuring some of our select vacation rental properties. We could publish a book on all that there is to do and see here, but perhaps we will leave that to you.

Here are just some of the highlights you can enjoy while vacationing in Mason County: