Packwood Enjoys Tourism Bump, Despite COVID-19

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Packwood — the small town of just about 315 people nestled in between Mt. Rainier National Park and the Gifford Pinchot National Forest — has seen a spike in their yearly visitor numbers which has helped many of the local businesses get through the financially tough times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

White Pass Country Historical Society (WPCHS) President Jan Grose said Packwood has seen approximately 3,800 visitors so far this year register at the Packwood Visitors Center, which is run by the WPCHS, and that includes March through May when the pandemic when restrictions were the most severe.

For reference, only 1,900 visitors registered for all of last year.

Gene Seiber, who also works for the WPCHS and mans the Packwood Visitor Center, said the office at some point has had to stay open seven days a week because of the number of people coming to explore the area or get away from the masses of people in big cities.

“We had three months there where we didn’t have any visitors, now we’re getting 300 to 400 people a month,” Seiber said.

In the summer months, Packwood was seeing a lot of families trying to find an outdoors vacation, but since summer has transitioned to fall, the crowds have appeared to be made up more of retirees, Seiber said.

They have come from all over the country, even some international visitors have dropped by.

“This year it has been more people from the continental United States,” Seiber said, noting people from Southwestern states have consistently been vacationing in Packwood.

“But this last weekend, we had four from London and four from Mexico City,” Seiber added.

Grose included that two Brazilian visitors were in Packwood the week before last.

Both Grose and Seiber suspect that Packwood was the ideal spot for many of the visitors because it is an outdoor-centric area, families can enjoy a vacation without having to worry about hoards of people and that Lewis County was in phase 3 of Washington’s Safe Start plan earlier than most counties.



“The pandemic has affected everyone, but Lewis County went into phase 2 and then phase 3 much sooner than other places, so here comes Texas, California, Florida,” Grose said. “People are coming here because it is more open and people need to be or want to be in the great outdoors, and it’s unrestricted.”

Hal Blanton, president of the Packwood Business Owner’s Committee and owner of Blanton’s Market, said his own business as well as others have benefited greatly from the additional travelers.

“There’s been a lot of traffic, particularly after Memorial Day Weekend,” Blanton said.

Blanton said his business is running ahead of where they were from a year ago, and he considered 2019 to be a busy year.

At the Oct 9. Packwood Business Owners Committee meeting, Blanton said that anyone who owns a business in town would tell you they are busy, according to the East Lewis County Journal.

However, Kelly Morris, owner of the Blue Spruce Saloon, couldn’t say whether she has noticed the increase in visitors because “there’s always foot traffic in the Summer and Winter.”

“We’re still busy, Packwood is busy, you know?” Morris said. “I don’t think it is like the best year I’ve had in my life (business-wise) … but we appreciate everyone that comes up here and spends money.”

Seiber remarked that Airbnb rentals have been the go-to choice for visitors that are in larger groups and often will stay for a week and sometimes even longer. “When people sign in here, they state where they’re from, what they’re doing, where they’re staying, and a lot of them are staying in Airbnbs,” Seiber said.

However, Seiber did not know of any locals who rent out property with Airbnb, adding that he believes it is mostly out-of-towners who own vacation homes in the area that rent them out.

TMC Vacation Rentals, a vacation rental business in Packwood, did not respond to The Chronicle’s request for comment.