Tulips, Artists, and Beer: The Best of Skagit

Gain a behind-the-scenes look at the best Skagit Valley has to offer while exploring one of the most scenic bicycle routes in the Pacific Northwest. Visit tulip fields at peak bloom, meet inspiring local artisans, and follow grains of barley from the fields all the way to your pint glass! Between adventures, enjoy gourmet local food and award-winning ales. With so much to offer, this is a once annual tour you will not want to miss!

• • Behind the scenes insights into brewing, fermenting & bottling craft beers with Chuckanut Brewery and Garden Path Fermentation
  • Tour greenhouses and learn how robust and delectable vegetables and herbs are grown at Blanchard Mountain Farm
  • Visit Tulip Town during peak bloom
  • Visit select galleries and engage with inspired craftspeople such as Smith and Vallee
  • Visit Skagit Valley Malting and learn how barley is transformed into the basis for beer
  • Receive an introduction to distillation over a locally-sourced wood fire pizza dinner at Terramar Brewstillery in Edison

• • • Private tours at Blanchard Mountain Farm, Skagit Valley Malting, Chuckanut Brewery, and Garden Path Fermentation
    • Admission to Tulip Town farm during peak bloom
    • Visits with local artisans and craftspeople
    • Locally Sourced Picnic lunch and light snacks
    • Artisan Pizza dinner at Terramar Brewstillery on Sunday
    • Two experienced guides throughout the trip
    • Chaser vehicle and bike tune-ups when needed
    • Downloadable Photo Album of Trip to Cherish Priceless Memories

You will need a bicycle and helmet, a change of clothing, a mask, an openness to learning, and a sense of adventure!

For participants in need of a bike/helmet, we can coordinate rentals with a local shop (e-bicycle options available). Email BikeNW@expint.org for details.

• • • Price: $180 per person (Groups of 3 or more receive a 15% discount and youth under 18 accompanied by an adult are 30% off)
    • Trip Difficulty: Intermediate level cyclists comfortable riding up to 45 minutes at a time
    • Mileage: 20 miles
    • Ride Time: 2.5 hours
    • Age Range: Teens-Adults (minors must be accompanied by a supervising adult)
    • Terrain: Mostly flat on secondary roads with a support vehicle and some trails w/ compacted gravel
    • Elevation Gain: Less than 100 ft.
    • Trip Length: Full Day 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM Sat. April 9th 2022
    • Group Size: 15 people max

This full-day Best of Skagit journey allows participants to explore what makes this such a spectacular place to call home. This special, once-a-year opportunity is arranged to maximize your fun and enjoyment while deepening your appreciation for the connections and collaborative partnerships that are working to preserve the future of the Skagit Valley.

Detailed Description of Tour

The Best of Skagit tour begins at 8:00 am at Blanchard Mountain Farm in Bow, WA. Participants will park their vehicles in a private lot. Blanchard Mountain Farm owners, Linda and Walter, will lead a tour of their greenhouses and introduce us to the vegetables, herbs, and native plants they grow. Blanchard Mountain supplies Terramar Brewstillery with herbs for their craft cocktails and vegetables for their pizzas, so you get to see growing what you may eat for dinner at the end of the ride! After the tour, the biking starts with a gentle 45-minute ride through the quaint town of Edison heading south along the Farm to Market road to the Port of Skagit, a one of a kind industrial district home to the Washington State University Bread Lab, Skagit Valley Malting, Chuckanut Brewery, and Garden Path Fermentation.

Skagit Valley Malting (SVM) is the region’s only small-batch custom malting operation. The malts produced here provide the basis of award-winning ales for iconic PNW breweries such as Garden Path Fermentation, Fremont Brewery, and Pike Brewing in Seattle. After taking a behind-the-scenes tour at SVM we will visit Garden Path Fermentation, a hyper-local brewery that specializes in regional ingredients, native yeast, and barrel-aged ales. Here we will enjoy a locally prepared picnic-style lunch and learn what makes brewing with native yeast and local ingredients so special.

After exploring this unique industrial park and filling our minds with a deeper appreciation for both the art of craft brewing and the many partnerships needed to make this iconic industry possible, we will hop back on our bikes for a relaxed thirty-minute ride to Tulip Town, one of the region’s premier commercial tulip farms. There we will have a two-hour pass to explore this spectacular farm during the peak bloom of the season.

After this inspiring experience, we will hop on our bikes and begin a leisurely ride back north and traverse along Padilla Bay, stopping to visit select galleries along the way to meet a few of the many talented and inspired craftspeople who call this region home. Back in Edison, not far from where we began, we will enjoy a delicious wood-fired pizza dinner at Terramar Brewstillery sourced entirely from ingredients within the Skagit Valley. While we wait for our food, we will receive an introduction to distillation from local staff and complete our journey from seed to spirits!

After a relaxed dinner overlooking the sloughs of Padilla Bay, we will ride just five minutes back to Blanchard Mountain Farm, where we can say farewell to our new friends before parting ways.

For information on additional opportunities during your visit to the Skagit Valley, check out Visit Skagit Valley.

We are committed to supporting our local community – food for our programs is sourced from local providers and sustainable producers.

Light snacks and refreshments are always on hand, just ask your friendly guide if you are hungry or run out of water.

Please let us know if you have any dietary restrictions on your registration and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.

Lunch

A pre-packaged picnic lunch for the program is included and will be prepared fresh to order on the day of the program by local licensed food providers. After program registration and 30 days before the trip start date, participants will receive a menu from which to select food preferences for meals.

Dinner
A delicious wood-fired pizza dinner featuring locally sourced ingredients is provided by Terramar Brewstillery. Located on a historic property in the beautiful Pacific Northwest where land (Terra) meets sea (Mar), Terramar Brewstillery is a brewery & distillery that focuses on sourcing hyper-local ingredients to craft beer & spirits with a sense of place. We could think of no better place to learn about craft distillation and enjoy a delicious dinner than with our good friends at Terramar Brewstillery.

• • • $50 (per person) trip deposit: due upon booking your reservation.
    • Full payment: due no later than 30 days before the trip date.  (A reminder email will be sent to you.)
    • Cancellations made more than 30 days before your trip date are refunded in full, minus the deposit or you can request a credit voucher for the full value of your trip toward a future EI trip.
    • Cancellations made fewer than 30 days before the trip date will receive a credit voucher for the full value of the trip toward a future EI trip.
    • If Experience International is forced to cancel the event for any reason (such as unsafe weather conditions) all participants will receive full credit toward a future trip (or a refund if you are unable to use the credit).