Olympic National Park in 5 amazingly full days!

We absolutely loved this gorgeous park and found the weather to be glorious!

Why visit Olympic National Park??

For us, we have a goal to visit every National Park so we were excited to see Olympic National Park and check that one off on our map. But beyond that, we found it’s just an amazing place to visit. I couldn’t get enough of this gorgeous area and it’s a park I would come back to again and again even though I’ve already checked it off the list.

How to see all the best of Olympic National Park

We arrived in Olympic National Park after a visit to North Cascades National Park and driving the Cascade Scenic Loop (more about that in a future post). We spent our first two nights in Port Angeles and it was a perfect home port for the first two days and is sometimes called the Gateway to Olympic National Park. We arrived in the evening ready to take on the day first thing in the morning. Olympic National Park isn’t like your usual National Park with one or two entrances. This park encompasses a huge part of this peninsula in Washington and skirts the coast in many areas. You are constantly driving in and out of the park.

Day 1

We always start our visits at the Visitor Center if at all possible. This time we visited the Visitor Center in Port Angeles to get a map, take pictures and check about hiking conditions etc. We wanted to visit the Hurricane Ridge part of the park and that area had several closures so it was especially important to visit the Visitor Center before heading in that direction. Check out the most recent updates online!

After hitting up the Visitor Center we headed up to Hurricane Ridge. When we were there in September of 2023 the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center had recently burned to the ground and they were only allowing a certain number of visitors up on the ridge each day because of the bathroom situation. The Visitor Center will give you info on if the road is open. The earlier you go, the better.

We had amazing weather so the visibility was good and the views from overlooks on the drive up are gorgeous. Stop and look if the visibility is good. On our way down it wasn’t good so don’t save things for later in Olympic National Park. You don’t know if later will be as good.

We parked up near the old Visitor Center and from there you walk to the Hurricane Hill Trailhead. It’s a 1 1/2 mile walk up the road from the parking lot to the trailhead and 1 1/2 mile walk back so make sure to factor that into the mix. If you don’t want to do the Hurricane Hill hike you can just walk up to the overlook near the parking.

The Hurricane Hill via Hurricane Ridge hike is worth the extra 3 miles you have to do to get to it. It’s a breathtaking hike. Literally and figuratively. The actual hike is almost 4 miles and AllTrails says it’s only 826 feet of elevation but my Apple watch said that was a lie. It’s a GREAT workout though and the views are worth every step! Here is the AllTrails link:

There are several more trails near the Hurricane Ridge area. Do some exploring on AllTrails if you have time to do another hike or two up there. When we finished hiking Hurricane Hill we headed back down the mountain and headed to hike a bit on outside Olympic National Park park in Sequim. We did part of the Dungeness Spit which was really cool. This hike is tide dependent because you are literally hiking out on a small spit of land. The entire hike is 10 miles total and there is a lighthouse at the end of the spit and you can often get a tour if you make it there.

Day 2

We headed out on day 2 again from Port Angeles. It was going to be a full one. First stop, Madison Falls in Olympic National Park. This waterfall is right off the road and a quick .20 mile hike. It’s definitely worth the stop.

We left Madison Falls and headed just a quick trip away to Marymere Falls. This was a lot of fun to hike through the pretty mossy woods, through a tunnel, over cool bridges and up a bit of elevation to get to another gorgeous falls. The trail is just shy of 2 miles with an elevation change of 300 feet and it’s all at the end. It could be a bit muddy in rain. Here is the AllTrails link:

Right near Marymere Falls is another quick stop that’s worth visiting. Look up the Moments in Time trail and check it out. You wind around part of Lake Crescent and through a mossy woods that is really pretty. This trail has a lot of interpretive signs with some info and history. Sitting by the lake is also a nice place to sit and eat your picnic lunch. Here is the link to this trail:

After lunch we headed off to what I thought was the best park of this area in Olympic National Park. Sol Due Falls is just spectacular and it’s not a hard hike at all. This hike is just under 2 miles, 226 feet of elevation and is rated as easy. DO THIS HIKE. You won’t regret it. There is a lot of juice for the squeeze. I absolutely loved this. Here is the AllTrails link to the hike:

After leaving Sol Duc Falls we were slowly heading back to Port Angeles and made a couple more stops down the road from Sol Duc. Like I mentioned earlier, Olympic National Park is a lot of in and out of different areas. You will be exploring lots of different roads and areas. Be prepared for lots of driving. Next up try hiking the Ancient Groves Trail. This is a 1/2 mile loop right near the road. It’s a flat, pretty and easy trail. Check it out for some old feeling woods and trees.

After the Ancient Groves Trail we stopped just a bit further down the road at the Salmon Cascades. During salmon spawning season you can watch from an overlook as the salmon come up the river. Explore to the right of the overlook because you can pick your way down to the river and explore around the beautiful pools. We really wanted to jump in but it was a bit too chilly for us that day. It sure was gorgeous.

We headed back to Port Angeles after all our hiking. I’ll be honest, we didn’t really find any dinner places we enjoyed enough to share with you. BUT, we found some amazing ice cream for dessert after all today’s hiking. Head down to the pier area near the ferry dock and try Wellies Real Fruit Ice Cream. They have regular flavors but the best was the vanilla blended with fruit into a really amazing, smooth soft serve type ice cream. It was definitely a two scoop ice cream spot. YUM!

Day 3

We heading out of Port Angeles to explore a brand new area of Olympic National Park—the coast. It’s worth taking the whole day to do it! You won’t regret it. I live in Eastern NC and spend a lot of time near the ocean. The Pacific Northwest area has a whole different beach vibe and it’s just as nice as our east coast beaches. It’s just a completely different type of beach beauty.

We started our day early because our first stop was Rialto Beach to hike to the hole in the wall and split rocks. In order to get to the hole in the wall section of the beach you need to be there at low tide. We checked the tide tables the night before to figure out what time we needed to start hiking to be there are low tide. We actually made it there one minute early. It’s just over a mile and a half of beach walking to reach the hole in the wall. It’s 3 miles round trip if you don’t continue on which we didn’t do.

We started walking at 8:30 a.m. and it was pretty darn cold. It was so gorgeous to see the beach as the sun was coming up over the trees. Wow. I took so many pictures that it was somewhat comical. The beach is full of driftwood. SO MUCH DRIFTWOOD. Huge pieces of driftwood everywhere. There is also some pretty awesome kelp seaweed on the beach that is called bullwhip kelp. I’m sharing a video of my hubby trying to do his best Indiana Jones and not quite pulling it off. Don’t miss this beach. It’s so worth it. We had a great picnic sitting on a big piece of driftwood after our hike.

Keep in mind that you need to be very mindful of the tides. It’s a bit slick to get over the rocks even at low tide. By the time we explored a bit and headed back out the water had come up enough that we noticed a pretty big difference.

After lunch we headed out to our next beach. On the way we passed these two signs that only make sense if you have read the Twilight series. My husband didn’t have a clue what they were all about but he was nice and took these pics for me. If you get it, you get it.

After our Twilight signs we headed to Second Beach which was just down the road from Rialto Beach. As you can tell they didn’t put too much thought into some of their beach names. To get to Second Beach you need to hike a mile each way with about 300 feet of elevation. It’s a really pretty hike to get to an even more beautiful beach. There were very few people here compared to Rialto Beach so enjoy having it almost all to yourselves. We checked out the beach in each direction and I recommend that. We ran into a Park Ranger to chat with on this beach and he was a wealth of information.

About an hour and a half from Second Beach and just outside the boundaries of Olympic National Park we visited Cape Flattery. You’ll need to stop in town to pick up a $20 Recreation permit which is required to park at any of the amazing beaches or trails on the reservation. The permit is good for a year. You are supposed to be able to stop at several local businesses but we were told that the only for sure place was the local gas station and yes, there is just one. They did check for our pass right before we reached Cape Flattery.

The trail is very well constructed and a good portion is a nice boardwalk. The hike is about 1.2 miles round trip and there are several overlooks along the way and at the end of the hike. The surf here was amazing and we saw several sea otters hanging out in the waves. This is a place you could just sit and watch the water for a while. Each of the overlooks have benches to hang for a while. This spot is definitely worth the drive.

For more information on Cape Flattery click here. /

By the time we finished at Cape Flattery it was almost dinner on Day 3 in Olympic National Park. We headed an hour and a half to Forks, Washington which is midway around the park (see map above). It’s a great second base for tomorrow adventures. Forks is the setting for the Twilight book series and I was interested in checking it out. It was a lot smaller and more tired than I expected but everyone there was very friendly.

We stayed at the Pacific Inn and for just over $200 we got their one apartment suite and it was a full apartment including a washer and dryer which was important over a week into our big trip. I really recommend this Hotel suite for your stay in Forks.

Day 4

Day 4 in Olympic National Park was all about Rainforests. We had been in the Pacific Northwest for 9 days and hadn’t seen any rain and we didn’t in the rainforest. But stay tuned because the rain did come. Day 5 had a lot of rain.

We were up early and headed out to the Hoh Rainforest which is just shy of an hour from Forks. It’s a pretty drive and it was still a gorgeous day full of sunshine. There is an entry kiosk to get into the rainforest section and there is a Visitor Center in the rainforest section as well.

The Hoh Rainforest is one of the biggest temperate rainforests in the US and it is protected because it is located in Olympic National Park.

There are several great trails in the Hoh Rainforest section of Olympic National Park and many are short and easy. But this section of the park is pretty crowded and we aren’t too into crowds so we picked a longer trail that wasn’t as busy. The trail we tried was called Hoh River Trail to Mineral Creek Falls. It was close to 6 miles long with minimal elevation and gorgeous views of the mossy forest which did not have any rain when we were there and actually had a lot of sunshine. It did crack me up a bit but it was great. During the hike there were some peeks of the river.

The trail was beautiful and had very few people which was lovely because the parking lot was totally full. This trail is not hard and you don’t have to go all the way to the waterfall if you just want to get a feel of the trail. The waterfall was ok from the trail bridge but we crossed the bridge and hiked up on the right and got much closer to the falls and it was much prettier. Here is the link for this trail.

The other hikes in the the Hoh Rainforest you can check out are the Hall of Mosses Trail Trail and the Spruce Nature Trail and both are around a mile and rated as easy. Give them a try but get there early because the trail and the parking lot get filled early!

We had been checking the weather and saw that our amazing days were coming to an end. I have a dear friend in the PNW area who was sending us updates. (Thanks Susan) We decided to do a chunk of our day 5 itinerary this afternoon so we could enjoy the last of the gorgeous weather so you can add this to day 5 or leave on day 5. On a side note check out the Hard Rain Cafe just outside Olympic National Park as you are leaving the rainforest section. We hiked all morning and into the afternoon and were starving as we left and this place had great burgers and chicken sandwiches and some cute stuffed banana slugs.

We headed from the Hard Rain Cafe to to Ruby Beach. This is just another of the amazing Washington Beaches. They are all just a little different so you need to see them all in my opinion. Ruby Beach has a big parking lot and is a quicker walk to get to so you will see lots more people here. It’s still worth the steep walk down. The views are just stunning.

Just a little further down the coast is Kalaloch Lodge one of the few park lodges in Olympic National Park. We had reserved a cabin and it was adorable. There was a kitchen, sitting area, bedroom and bath. It also had a woodturning stove which we found out worked REALLY well. It had clouded up and was starting to rain and the temps dropped quite a bit. We were so chilly and my hubby started the fire. That was a bit of a mistake because he did it quite well and pretty soon we were opening windows just to be able to sleep. But it was really fun for the first hour to sit and read by the fire.

If you stay here just be aware there is no tv, no WIFI and no service so you do have to enjoy the peace and quiet. It’s a great place to read and enjoy the beauty. Each cabin has a couple chairs out from to sit and see the ocean views and they are all decorated with their own flower boxes. I felt that this cabin was like something out of Little House on the Prairie.

Day 5

This morning we walked down Kalaloch Beach from our cabin. It was raining and still so lovely. There was a stream that came down from the lodge area to the ocean and we had to try and cross it and keep dry. Let’s just say we didn’t stay dry. The tide was out and the sand was absolutely filled with Sand Dollars. They were everywhere. At home on NC beaches it’s a rare find so this was such a treat to see.

We continued up the coast from Kalaloch Lodge and eventually you run into Beach 4 (remember that naming thing I was telling you about). Beach 4 is known for the Tree of Life. This amazing tree is growing across a ditch and its roots are almost all exposed. Please do everyone a favor and stay off the roots. It’s really just doing it’s best to hang on.

While you are near Kalaloch Lodge check out the Big Cedar Tree nearby. It’s one of the biggest in the area and right near the road so it’s quick to check out.

As we were driving out of Olympic National Park and heading to Mt. Rainier we stopped at Merriman Falls in Quinault near Quinault Lake. This pretty waterfall is right on the roadside and it’s quite lovely. You can view from the road or walk down just a few yards to get up close and personal. This little area near Quinault is beautiful and if it wasn’t pouring we would have stayed here longer to explore more. Maybe next time. I would definitely take time either way on your trip to check it out! I wanted to climb up to the top but it was so wet and muddy that I was afraid I would end up on my rear end.

I hope this itinerary gives you a good start on your journey to set up your own trip to Olympic National Park. There is so much to see and do here and it’s made its way to the top of my favorite parks list.

Please share any of your favorite things to do in Olympic National Park if you don’t see them listed here. I would love your comments. Please like, comment or share this blog or even better do all three. I would love for you to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, X or Pinterest.

Thanks for traveling with me,

Stephanie

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