More apple-industry displays are part of the focus of the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center, 127 S. Mission St. (tel. 509/664-3340; wenatcheevalleymuseum.com), but there are also interesting exhibits on local Native American cultures and the first transpacific flight. Model-railroading buffs will enjoy the HO-scale Great Northern Railway. The museum also hosts lectures, traveling exhibitions, and concerts, and at some concerts, the museum's 1919 Wurlitzer organ is played. It's open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 4pm. Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for seniors, and $1 for children ages 6 to 12.

Though it's only a dozen or so miles from the lush forests of the Cascades, Wenatchee is on the edge of central Washington's arid shrub-steppe region. To bring a bit of the mountains' greenery into this high desert, Herman Ohme and his family spent 60 years creating Ohme Gardens, 3327 Ohme Rd., Wenatchee (tel. 509/662-5785; www.ohmegardens.com), a lush alpine garden covering 9 cliff-top acres north of Wenatchee. The gardens wind along the top of a rocky outcropping that overlooks the Wenatchee Valley, Columbia River, and Cascade peaks. Rock gardens, meadows, fern grottoes, and waterfalls lend a naturalistic feel similar to that of a Japanese garden. The gardens are open from April 15 to October 15, daily from 9am to 6pm (until 7pm in summer). Admission is $7 for adults, $3.50 for children ages 6 to 17.

North of Wenatchee on the north side of the town of Entiat, watch for the Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center (tel. 509/662-3035; www.wildfirecenter.org), which has two old fire lookouts and the .5-mile Trail of Fire and Forest that explains the role of fires in western forests.

Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.