Olympic National Park Roadtrip

[35thAV]

So the wife, the baby and myself headed to the Olympic National Park for a nice long week of GET-THE-HECK-OUTTA-TOWN! With little to no plan on what we are doing or where we are staying and only the first stop figured out we load the trailer and the truck and head west.

From Seattle he drive is only about 2.5 hours and 45 minutes of that is on the ferry (of course 30 minutes in the ferry line). After stopping at Cape Flattery near Neah Bay (most northwest point on the continental US)

My hiking buddy for the last 6 months:


We stayed the first two nights at the Lost Resort at Lake Ozette out near the ocean beaches. This was nice because they have showers, a store & café, free WiFi and surprisingly good espresso!



While at this stop we hiked the 9.2 mile Cape Alava / Sand Point beaches hike wow this was really a great hike even in the fog (which I love!). It made for some great pics at low tide. Aside from that I just hung around camp and enjoyed the fire and the Crown Royal.

[35thAV]

Day 3: we headed south to Forks, Wa to the Hoh Rainforest area. Once there we had no trouble finding a great spot, set up camp, then hiked two of the trails that extend from the visitors center where we saw several deer with young and elk. The weather that night got pretty nasty with well over several inches of rain but we were very warm and dry.




Day 4: We headed back up through Forks and out to Sol Duc hot springs resort – this place was fun. Again we had no issues locating a great spot mid-week. Once we set up camp we hiked out to Sol Duc Falls and had a lunch on a big rock next to the river above the falls then came my favorite part of many camping trips NAP TIME! The resort itself was nice with hot showers! three giant hot tubs, one 100+ degree swimming pool made it REALLY easy to relax here. After hanging out in the pool with the little one and some hot showers we fed the kiddo then treated ourselves to a great steak dinner at the resort before walking back to camp for a campfire w/ cocktails.

[35thAV]

Day 5: We head to Lake Crescent another very pretty place where pictures don’t do the color of the glacier water justice. Again no trouble finding a great site at Fairholme Campground right on the lake. We headed over to the ranger station and went on a short easy hike up to a great little water fall. Then we took the Avalanche for a dirty drive to the Spruce Railroad trail for another short hike along the old railroad tracks. Then back to lounge by the fire (gotta love that).


NAP TIME!

[35thAV]

Day 6: We decide to head to the mountains this day. So we drive into Port Angeles grab some ice and a couple other things then grab a spot at Heart o’ Hills campground just inside the park. After getting situated there we throw some food and a couple beers in the truck and head up to Hurricane Ridge for the day. The drive is beautiful in itself but if your up for it the hikes are spectacular!
At the top it was sunny and beautiful. After taking a pitstop at the visitors center we did a tailgate lunch then loaded up the little one for a 2.8 mile hike UP Klahhane Ridge.

Tailgating on Hurricane Ridge




After heading back down the mountain my wife made a great dinner and some yummy grown-up cocoa (if you know what I mean). Then we headed over to the ranger campfire talk hot cocoa in hand. The talk was great with lots of slides and a ton of information about bears, cougars and deer.



Day 7: We break camp and head east back to the big city.

[Eunice]

really nice pics. Looks like a wonderful trip.

[Mstro]

Nice pics of your trip, looks nice there

Your hiking buddy looks like he really get into it

Thanks for the look see

[madjack]

...now that is what I call sharing your trip...thanks ..........
madjack

[35thAV]

...now that is what I call sharing your trip...thanks ..........
madjack

Thanks!
I was hoping I might inspire other with this adventure!

[Nobody]

Thanks for the 'tour' & pix. The OP is one of my very favorite places in the USA. Wife & I have spent a few weeks (total) there over the years & enjoyed every minute of it. There are a couple of nice 'primitive' campgrounds on the Hoh rainforest road. Think we spend an entire week with the Minnie Petersen C/G as our base for exploring the western half of the OP. This year we'd planned to visit OP before IRG 2.0 but sadly, fuel prices caused a change in plans & we didn't get to see either . Hopefully we'll make it within the next year or so.

[dreadcptflint]

Very nice trip. The pennisula is one of the few places that we have not gone. I have to wait at least another year since our little guy freaks out over the Ocean and that would cut out about half of the neat stuff. How was the camping spots over the holiday weekend?

[mandy]

I have family in Washington and the closest I have come to the OP was Seattle.

Being that I live in a Desert I just love all those trees. Thank you for sharing your trip with us.

Mandy

[35thAV]

Very nice trip. The pennisula is one of the few places that we have not gone. I have to wait at least another year since our little guy freaks out over the Ocean and that would cut out about half of the neat stuff. How was the camping spots over the holiday weekend?

We had no issues finding camping spots out there. All the Nat. Park all campgrounds except two are first come first serve w/ no reservations. We made it a point to go to the next site in the morning. We would wake up, have breakfast , break camp then drive to wherever we were going (while the baby was sleeping ). Most the time we were there by mid-morning and had a good pick of sites.

[cccamper]

Beautiful trip! Good info, thanks for taking the time

My sister had a dinner the other night and gave a presentation of her Alaskan cruise with a cousin. They arrived in Seattle 4 days early to play around. (we grew up in WA and she went back to Tacoma to nursing school) They ended up spending all their time on the OP. It's a fantasy for photographers.

BTW, growing up camping since age 3 in the mtns. of WA, OR, BC, I know that you are giving your baby an awesome gift. Way to go!

We need to make some wooden teardrops for 1:12 or so for kids. Gotta get to the drawing board. Even just a few different sets of plans.... hmmm (there goes my quilt designing for tonight!)

e . .

[35thAV]

Beautiful trip! Good info, thanks for taking the time

They ended up spending all their time on the OP. It's a fantasy for photographers.

BTW, growing up camping since age 3 in the mtns. of WA, OR, BC, I know that you are giving your baby an awesome gift. Way to go!

Your right there are a million things to photograph on the OP...I think I shot at least a 150 pictures when we were there!

[fpoole]

Good trip, just saw this post...
Very nice trip...

Was looking to set one up. There is another one posted in here as well, giving the locations...
fun...
thanks for the pics..

frank