The giant Palouse earthworm was thought to be extinct until a few sightings over the past decade, including the above specimen found by University of Idaho grad student Yaniria Sanchez-de Leon in 2005. Only native to the Palouse prairie region of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho, this white wriggler can grow up to three feet long (yowza!) and supposedly smells like lilies (delicious!). more ›

Twenty minutes south of Olympia we take exit 95 off I-5 towards Little Rock. The road changes name a couple times until we're on 28th Ave SW, which ends at Waddell Creek Rd. SW. This was the closest point we could map to where we were going: the Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve. From here, we take a right and drive down Waddell for about a mile, just like the article in the told us, and then just barely noticed the turn in time. more ›