After moving back to Seattle, reunions with all three of Washington’s national parks were high on my to-do list. Fitting everything into a weekend trip to Olympic NP can seem harder to do than visiting its two sister national parks, given the park’s location across Puget Sound from Seattle and with such a large area to potentially cover. (1,442 square miles!) Good luck trying to plan around the weather, as most of the park is essentially a rainforest and the mountains are of course snow-covered much of the year. That being said, the incredible diversity of the park means that there is always something to enjoy – and hey, the rain is kind of what you’re there for anyway! I actually ended up making the trip right around Halloween, and was lucky to still be able to both make it up to Hurricane Ridge and enjoy a bizarrely sunny day in the rainforest.
This journey starts and ends in Port Angeles, which is only about 3 hours from Seattle. Port Angeles also has plenty of internet and Airbnbs to facilitate a day or two of remote work to book-end your trip if possible.
Day 1 – Heart O’ the Hills and Hurricane Ridge
5pm – Perhaps you’ve just finished a day of remote work in Port Angeles, or landed in town after a Summer Friday drive over from Seattle. There are plenty of great places to grab a beer and dinner in town, or kick your park adventure off with a night in the Heart O’ the Hills campground nestled in the old growth forest just within the park boundaries. If you’re there mid-May through October when the Hurricane Ridge Road is open 24 hours, you could catch an incredible sunset!
Day 2 – Hoh Rainforest and Rialto Beach
9am – Since I was visiting in October, I packed up camp and went straight to the gate on Hurricane Ridge Road to see if it was open that day (call the visitor center to check conditions on non-summer weekends). If you’ve already enjoyed the views at sunset, start your day at the Olympic National Park Visitor Center – be sure to pick up a current tide table if you want to spend some time at the beach. You could also grab supplies for a picnic lunch before you leave the Port Angeles area.
12pm – It’s about a two hour drive from the Port Angeles visitor center to the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center. Along the way, you’ll pass Lake Crescent and the Twilight-famous town of Forks, so you might find yourself stopping for views and then for lunch in town as an alternative to a picnic on the Spruce Nature Trail. The Hall of Mosses trail is “iconic” (National Park Service words, not mine!) and short enough to fit in regardless of your schedule; if you want to spend more time in the rainforest, you can go as far as you like along the Hoh River Trail, perhaps even to backpack for the night (you’ll need a permit). You can stay the night at the Hoh Campground – note that you’ll need reservations during peak season.
2pm – If you do the short version of the rainforest experience and the tides are right, you can make the hour-or-so drive out to Rialto Beach in the afternoon and walk down the beach to Hole in the Wall. (Be sure to check the tides.)
6pm – You could head back into Forks for dinner if needed, but I highly recommend a sunset picnic on the beach. Mora Campground is a great alternative to camping in the Hoh (reservations needed during peak season) – set up camp on your way to the beach and then you can enjoy the sunset without having to get settled in the dark. (Also a note that if you do stay at the Hoh campground, you could potentially set up camp when you stop in around lunchtime, come out to the beach for the afternoon/sunset, and then head back to sleep.)
Day 3 – La Push and Hurricane Ridge
8am – You slept so well in camp that you can get up early – the sites you’re here for (beach, forest, mountains) don’t have any opening hours that you need to wait for to start your day! Explore around La Push – Twilight fans may have heard of First/Second/Third Beach – or more of the rainforest, then head back towards Port Angeles.
11am – Even with a morning enjoying the beach or rainforest, you should still have plenty of daylight to spend in the mountains at Hurricane Ridge, where there are a variety of hiking trails to suit your energy level. Or if you’re there when the ridge road is closed, the Sol Duc area on the way from the coast to Port Angeles has both hot springs and more rain forest trails to suit your fancy. The Elwha Valley – also on the way from the coast back to Port Angeles – is another fascinating area to visit, where you can learn about the dam removal and ecosystem restoration.
Google probably wants me to let you know that if you liked this post, you may like my 48-hour guides to the North Cascades, Yosemite, or perhaps my whole National Parks category!
