Olympic Peninsula trip ideas

[seldomseensmith]

I'm taking my family camping in the Olympic National Park next month. We are flying up from New Mexico and renting a car. With the incredible wealth of knowledge here I thought it was worth asking if anyone has any great place or hike advice. We are camping at Kalaloch and Sol Duc. Our boys are 4 and 7 years old. Thanks.

 

[Wrathchild]

I love the Olympic peninsula. Truly an amazing place! On your way to Sol Duc you can hit a couple of my old favorites. Humes Ranch up the Elwha valley is really cool. Follows the river past some old homesteads and you can get glimpses of the river running wild with the dams removed. Spruce Railroad trail along Lake Crescent and go swimming at Devils Punchbowl if it's warm enough. Then hit up the lodge for some grub. On the way out hit up granny's cafe on 101 right before lake Sutherland. Good burgers and your kids will dig the ice cream I'm sure. Sol Duc is really cool too. The falls and hot springs are there of course. Good trails right out of the campground. Heading up to Heart Lake may be a haul with the kids but worth it. Ran into large groups of goats pretty much everytime I've been through there.

 

[Jskaanland]

The hoh(pronounced hoe... giggles) rainforest is cool and if I remember correctly the Hall of Mosses Trail is flat and paved... great for smaller kids.

Once they are older the skyline trail is a cool if you want to go from east to west or tie into the quinault trail to make more of a loop. You can see the largest yellow cedar! Okay its just a big tree.

If you want to head out to the water, there are some beach/woods trails around La Push or even Ozette.

If you want to dig butter clams and shuck oysters, the beaches I know are on the hood canal side, Duckabush and Dosewallips. I'm sure someone can chime in with a beach closer to where you will be staying. If you make it over to Dosewallips and out to the beach, you might get to see the herd of elk that call that area (including the beach) home.

 

[92xj]

The one place I'll never forget in life, on the OP, that I visited as a kid years ago is hurricane ridge.

 

[mikkel318]

We were there last summer and walked the trails at Cushman Lake and the staircase campground. I took a swim in Cushman lake and it was amazing.

A few years ago we backpacked out to cape Alava along the coast and it was spectacular. Saw some nice blacktails in velvet to

 

[BroodBuster]

The entire OP is spectacular so pretty hard to not have a great trip.

Kalaloch may well be the best campground in the state so you're golden there. From there head south and go up the upper Queets road. The Queet rainforest is exactly the same as the Hoh but the park service doesn't publicize it to keep the crowds non existent. The Queets elk herd hangs right around the ranger station. Nice little loop trail at the campground too.

Definitely want to head up to Hurricane ridge as it is the only road to alpine country. Try and pick a sunny day for this for views of Canada, Cascades and PS.

The Coffee Shop in Forks has the best breakfast in the state. It doesn't look like much but they feed loggers and fishermen for a living and do it right.

On way out from SeaTac take the Seattle ferry and once across Hood Canal bridge head south to Brinnon. Oysters at Seal Rock campground and clams at Dosewallops state park. As noted there's a Brinnon herd of elk. You'll need a low tide for the clams but you can get oysters at a +5 tide.

Realto beach just north and west of Forks is great for beach combing. If a storm happens to blow through hit it just after high tide. Still getting a bunch of tsunami debris out there.

From Kalaloch there's a nice loop drive from Clearwater to the south fork Hoh. Elk and a bunch of deer at the corrections facility.

Impossible to not have a great trip. OP is basically a wagon wheel of streams coming off the mountains. Pick any spoke and head to the end of he road for a great day!

 

[brossman]

I did the lower Hoh trail from the park to Elk Lake last weekend (30.2 mi trip) and it was pretty lackluster. A couple cool spots to step out by the river and our camp at 12.4 was great. Aside from that though the hike is boring other than a couple water crossings. I'd recommend going higher up to enjoy some views.

But like everyone else has said you can't beat the OP.


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[seldomseensmith]

Thanks for all the great info. I've been wondering how the mosquitos are?

 

[BroodBuster]

They'll be non existent at the beach but moderate to horrific as you go up in elevation.

 

[slvrslngr]

You'll definitely want to go up Hurricane Ridge.

 

[Jskaanland]

Thanks for all the great info. I've been wondering how the mosquitos are?

Deet is your friend.

 

[highside74]

Lake Quinalt area has a short walk to the world largest Spruce Tree.

 

[woodmoose]

The entire OP is spectacular so pretty hard to not have a great trip.

agreed,,,,I spent 6 years at Ft Lewis (between Seattle and Olympia) and my only regret is not having the time (due to deployments and such) to spend more time exploring the Olympic Peninsula more,,,,,,,,

have a great trip

 

[541hunter]

I lived and worked in forks for a while and still couldn't get to everything I wanted to see. I would check out cape flattery as it is the most north western point in the continental US and only around a 1/2 mile hike. Also check out shi shi beach, it used to be featured in nat geos top beaches.


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