Tulip festival in Mt. Vernon, Washington. Please help.

Hi all,

I am a visitor to the Seattle area, and I'm actually here for work. And yes I brought my camera with me, thank goodness!

I know the Tulip festival in Mt. Vernon is going on now in April, my question is, would it be worth spending an extra day or 2 here after my job is over to visit that area? I love seeing a whole field of either wild flowers or flower of all sort of colors, so maybe this Tulip festival would be very interesting to a photographer's eye.

Have anyone been there to take photographs? What are your comments about the place? How about when it's rainy (because there's always that possibility)? Would towards the end of April (around the 21st to 23rd) be too late to visit that area?

Please help. Thank you very much in advance!

Chun Ming Huang

The tulips are just barely starting to come up right now, so the timeframe you've outlined should be right when they're peaking. Should time out perfectly.

I caught the festival 2 years ago and it was wonderful. It did rain most of the time we were there which only served to thin the crowds which is a good thing. Just use appropriate protection for your gear and deal with some mud and you'll have the fields to yourself for the most part. Here's a link to one of the images from that trip on my site.

http://wcbeanphoto.com/Images/trip/northwest06/Tulips2.jpg

Dont worry about the rain, the clouds can make for some pretty nice shots of the fields if there is a slight break.

This was taken when there was rain in the forecast, go get some great shots http://www.pbase.com/ddietiker/image/92620590

Hi Chun Ming, The tulips this year are WAY behind schedule!! It's been unusually wet and COLD this late winter/early spring and that has repressed the growth of the tulips.

Here is a link to a bloom map that will show what's blooming and what isn't:

Tulip Blooms

Right now the only thing blooming are the daffodils...

Having lived in the Mt. Vernon area for 15+ years, and having visited the Tulip fields many times, I can tell you that it's worth the visit. Will it rain while you're there? Probably. But there will likely be breaks in the weather. If you can avoid the weekends you'll be much better off. The traffic (cars, bikes, pedestrians) on the weekends led to the "Nuke the Tulips" campaign (including bumper stickers) by the local residents in the 80's and 90's
I don't know that I'd spend 2 days there though. Check out the town of LaConner while you're there - it's very photogenic. Hope you have a great visit!

It's very much worth the extra time and effort. Once you've had your fill of the flowers, you can drive up into the Cascades for some additional scenery to work with.

I think the tulip fields in Skagit Valley are definitely a good photo subject (unless you're like our friend here Marc Adamus and only like to photograph purely natural landscapes).

The Seattle Times has some info about the festival and current conditions in today's paper: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/outdoors/2004337426_nwwtulip100.html

If you can make it the weekend of April 19, we'd love to have you join us at Tulip Town! See the featured threads above for more information.

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival web site has lots of information as well.