OLYMPIC
It is hard to describe the vastness of Olympic National Park, though we have certainly tried. We were fortunate enough to spend five days within the park, exploring its various landscapes and constantly being gobsmacked by the lushness of the park. We got to explore mountains, beaches, rainforests, and lakes and each of these environments was so different from each other. In order to acccess the park and cut down on our driving, we stayed in two separate areas, Port Angeles and Forks. Our first day in the park took us to the Staircase Section, where we hiked Shady Lane and Staircase and dipped into the National Forest to hike Mount Ellinor which was one of the toughest hikes we have done to date. Climbing Ellinor gave us incredible views of the park and the surrounding sights including Mount Rainier in the distance.
On our second day in the park, we hiked Klahhane Ridge so we were able to get a much more encompassing view of the Olympics. While most people will drive up to Hurricane Ridge and park and hike from there, a fire at the lodge on Hurricane Ridge had closed this section to traffic, therefore our only way up was to hike. This was an amazing sweeping adventure that brought us from old growth forest to the mountains and back again. While this was by no means an easy hike, it was one that was well worth it.
On our third day we ventured to the most northwest section of the United States when we hiked out to Cape Flattery, which is on the Makah Reservation. This lush, forested boardwalk was an absolutely beautiful hike which gave us a view of Tatoosh Island. From here we drove to the Shi Shi Beach Trailhead which is partly on the Makah Reservation and partly on Olympic National Park holdings. This forest to beach hike gave us an incredible mix of landscapes which also included tide pools and sea stacks.
Staying in Forks for the rest of the trip gave us the opportunity to hike the west side of Olympic National Park with more ease. On our fourth day we explored the dense and beautiful Hoh Rainforest, walked the rough shoreline of Rialto Beach to Hole in the Wall, and traveled to the edge of the earth on the Ozette Triangle Hike. Each of these hikes gave us more and more scenery to explore that was so vastly different from anything we had seen up until this point.
As we drove to Mount Rainier National Park, we took time to explore the Lake Quinault area of Olympic, making the Quinault Loop our last hike within the park. While Mike has been to Olympic prior to this trip, he got to see so much more than he did on his first journey, solidifying this as one of his favorite National Parks, of which Dusty would also agree.
Olympic National Park is on the traditional and stolen land of the Lower Elwha Klallam, Jamestown S’Kalllam, Port Gamble S’Kallam, Skokomish, Quinault, Hoh, Quileute, and Makah people.
Listen while you look! These buttons will link you to the podcast episode(s) for this park and gallery.
