No passport required; this breathtaking U.S. national park delivers all the drama of Patagonia in the Pacific Northwest.

National parks on the West Coast get all the attention and tourist traffic, and that's exactly why the region's state parks are so laid back.

Lakes throughout the Pacific Northwest take a long time to warm in the summer, and some of them, like the nearby 2,000-foot-deep Crater Lake, don’t warm up at all. I was cold already. Upon making ...