Okanogan County, Washington – “King of the Hill”

Okanogan County, Washington’s largest by land area, is a landscape that shifts from high mountain passes to wide river valleys and open plateaus. The North Cascades Scenic Highway (State Route 20) winds through the Methow Valley, offering dramatic mountain vistas as it climbs westward toward Washington Pass. Together with modern amenities and a forward-thinking approach, the county’s frontier spirit is also still very much alive. In the largest city of Omak, the Omak Stampede rodeo features a daredevil horserace whose winning rider is celebrated as “King of the Hill,” an ode to the area’s heritage and an ongoing love of competition.

Agriculture remains a cornerstone of life in the Methow Valley. Roughly 9,000 acres of the valley’s private lands are actively farmed or ranched today, yielding orchard fruits like apples and pears along with plentiful hay and other crops. These farmlands and basins not only preserve the valley’s pastoral scenery with acres of fresh-cut hay and farmland blanketing the river plain, but they also sustain salmon populations when they return to the Methow River watershed each year.

Okanogan County has chosen MapGeo as its official county map viewer, giving residents and visitors an interactive way to explore the region. The platform includes detailed real estate sales from the past five years, as well as boundaries for hospital, school, fire, and EMS districts. One of the most unique features on Okanogan’s MapGeo site is the county’s herd district layer, showing where it is illegal to allow livestock to run at large.

Visit the Okanogan County MapGeo site: https://okanoganwa.mapgeo.io/