Circling the Olympic Peninsula in a Few Short Days
So it’s been a little while since we actually went on the trip, but I thought I’d give a recap of our recent Olympic Peninsula Trip! We chose the end of May thinking the weather would be decent and the crowds would be low. Conveniently it all went according to plan. Right from the get go we decided that this would be more of a surface level overview type trip since we’d never been, and now live so close to the Olympic Peninsula. So, rather than focus on any one part of the park we hit up everywhere for a bunch of short hikes! With that being the choice, we decided it would be too much of a hassle to take and keep track of the bikes while out and about, so this was a bike free trip – although I do foresee some Olympic Peninsula riding in the future (and we did see so many tourers about, especially around Port Angeles; we were a little envious!)
Lake Quinault
Starting from Portland, we decided we would start at the closest part of the Olympic Peninsula, the South. After the three hour drive, we figured the 4 mile Quinault Loop Trail would be perfect for stretching our legs. It was a lovely forest hike where we enjoyed identifying plants that we knew and guessing at (or looking up) those that we didn’t. There were a decent amount of people about, but nothing excessive especially considering that it was a Saturday with perfect weather.
Knowing that vegetarian food options would be scarce on the south and west sides of the Peninsula, we had brought some tofu and sundried tomato sandwiches with us that we were able to enjoy by the lake.
Before leaving the Lake Quinault area, we of course made the quick jaunt over to check out the world’s largest Spruce tree. Can confirm, it’s a big tree.
In researching, it sounds like there is a very scenic drive around the lake, but we opted to skip it to save our little car from the gravel roads.
West Coast Beaches
After leaving Lake Quinault we headed west to start our clockwise circle of the Olympic Peninsula. As suggested by a friend, we hit up Ruby beach as our next stop, 45 min away. Unfortunately it was this stretch of road where we played chicken with a bird (thank goodness it wasn’t an actual chicken!) we won, but when you later have to squeeze a dead robin out of your car grill, are you really a winner? But I digress, Ruby Beach was a really neat beach, with awesome sea stacks, iconic of the PNW coastline.
Continuing on our clockwise journey, we briefly stopped in the town of Forks to check in to our hotel for the night (and take care of that aforementioned robin we had just discovered) then it was off to another beach!
This time, we stopped at Rialto Beach, passing up all sorts of twilight fan signs along the way. (Vampires are not allowed at Rialto beach so enter at your own risk if you identify as such!) At Rialto beach we opted to take the 4 mi “Hole in the Wall” hike – thinking it would be flat and easy. Well it was flat, but the sand was not packed down at all so it was quite the workout on our calves. And, thanks to the tides not matching up with our schedule very well we didn’t make it all the way to the actual hole in the wall feature, but it was still a really cool hike with lots of interesting sea formations, and a really pretty sky. Others agreed apparently because the area was covered in hammock campers tucked up in the trees just beyond the beach.
Being too exhausted from our not as easy as we thought hike we opted to skip La Push and its beaches, and instead head back into the town of Forks where we could grab pizza for dinner, and relax for the rest of the evening.
Hoh Rainforest
Sunday Morning, we awoke at a pretty reasonable time for us and made our way inland toward the Hoh Rainforest. For somewhere that gets around 150 inches of rain a year, we somehow magically got to enjoy a day of blue skies and sunshine. Okay you couldn’t see the blue skies very often with the density of the trees, but it was still awesome weather.
We hit up the iconic Hall of Mosses to ogle at all the greenery, then opted to hike along the less populated Hoh River Trail (opting to turn around at a stream crossing about 2 miles in).
Yes the Hoh rainforest was cool – but honestly it was pretty similar to the forests we have around Portland, and the Oregon Coast, that I wasn’t overly impressed with it or anything. Definitely cool for anyone not familiar with the PNW forests though.
Sol Duc
After a quick packed lunch at some picnic tables it was time to see another part of the park. We had a 2hr drive northward up to Sol Duc (pronounced like ‘duck’ – I swear for the craziness of the spelling you’d think more travel literature would tell you that. I only found out because there was an old sign outside the falls trailhead that read “soleduck”. I guess in the 90s they wanted to make it fancier and changed the official spelling – more likely that probably just matched the native language better but still!). After reading reviews, we opted to skip the hot spring, and instead only hike the Sol Duc Falls hike. The drive along the Sol Duc River was really cool, and I definitely wouldn’t mind coming back to do some of the other hikes in the area. The Sol Duc Falls hike was probably our most crowded of all the hikes we did. But there was still plenty of space to enjoy the scenery and take in the falls.
Lake Crescent - South Side
Because we apparently have endless amounts of energy, we decided we had time to stop at Lake Crescent and do the Marymere Falls hike – who doesn’t love a good waterfall hike? Between Sol Duc and Marymere, Sol Duc wins with no questions asked, but Marymere was still a nice hike, and provided some excellent lake views at the start as well. (I should also note whoever isn’t actively driving along that first portion of the 101 along Lake Crescent will also have some amazing views! – sadly I was the one driving that leg so I had to focus on the squiggly road and Andrew had to appreciate most of the views for me)
Port Angeles
Our final destination for the day was our hobbit hole AirBnB in Sequim (*pronounced skwim*) but rather than head straight there we opted to check out Port Angeles and grab some food. One of the only vegetarian places open for us was Pho New Saigon, a Vietnamese eatery. It had started to get a little chilly as the evening progressed, so the Pho was just what we needed (and the bonus bubble teas weren’t a bad addition either). After dinner, and some quick town exploration we decided it was time to rest our weary feet and enjoy our hobbit hole in Sequim.
Hurricane Ridge
Day 3 started with a trek up to Hurricane Ridge, an easy access mountain area with amazing views. Originally our plan had been to do some hiking up there, but with the late spring of 2022, the trails were all buried under snow. Not wanting to get lost, or wind up with cold, wet feet, we opted to forego the ridge hikes. Instead we wandered the plowed parking lot and down a closed service road. The views from the parking lot/ visitor center were stunning so we weren’t too upset about our lost hike. We even found a curious, friendly marmot!
Lake Crescent - North side
After a healthy okay lunch Turnip the Beet in Port Angeles (I think Andrew liked his bowl more than I did) we made our way back west toward Lake Crescent. This time, we went to the north side so we could hike part of the Spruce Railroad trail. We opted to hike to Devil’s Punchbowl and back for a VERY dark tunnel and cool views. That trail was nice, wide and mostly paved; it would be an excellent trail to come back through on our bikes.
Elwha
Not being exhausted yet, we decided to hit up Madison Falls on our way back westward. That was a super short hike to a pretty cool waterfall (Of the 3 falls we saw, Sol Duc Falls was uncontested the best if you only have time for one). The parking lot for Madison Falls was along the Elwha River, so we decided to explore the river bank a little while we were already there. We even caught a glimpse of Mt Olympus (I think) before it tucked away behind some clouds.
Sequim
We had another night in our Sequim hobbit hole, so before calling it a day we opted to check out the Sequim Bay State Park which also included a portion of the Olympic Discovery Trail! (I’m sensing a future bike trip hopefully sooner rather than later!) Mostly the park was just a really nice campground, but it was nice to have somewhere to explore that was super close to our lodgings.
We did explore the town of Sequim a little more on our last morning (day 4). We opted for a lazy morning since we would be driving back home. In theme, we felt it necessary to give ourselves a hearty breakfast. Black Bear Diner fit the bill perfectly. (Basically it’s a bear themed Denny’s, with massive portion sizes). I enjoyed all the bear themes, and the pancakes were just what I needed. We also swung up to the north side of Sequim so that we could get one last glimpse of the Salish Sea (and the New Dungeness Lighthouse way in the distance across the spit) before heading South down the 101 along the East side of the Peninsula.
Port Townsend
Rewinding a bit back to the end of our third day, after we tired of Sequim Bay State Park, we gave ourselves some time to clean up and recoup in our hobbit hole and then headed out to Port Townsend for dinner. As we explored the town, we enjoyed reliving some of our memories from our Pacific Coast bike trip the previous year. For dinner we had chosen Tommyknocker’s Cornish Pasty. Unfortunately by the time we got there they were all out of vegetarian pasties! Andrew had to settle for a vegan crab cake burger instead, but I can attest that the pasties were fantastic.
We ended our evening with explorations around Fort Worden State Park. This of course included a lighthouse, and even an old battery that would be the PERFECT setting for a scary movie (especially since we were there around sunset as if the unlit rooms weren’t dark enough!).
Staircase Rapids
Our last stop of our 4-day trip was a 2mile hike at Staircase Rapids. In reading the description of how to get to the hike, I knew we would have to take a gravel road to get out there, but Google being Google, saw a forest service road (NFD24) that was 10 miles shorter with no posted speed limits, and tried to get us to go that way (the map at the start of this post even shows this INCORRECT route). It was a stressful 10 minutes moving maybe 2 miles and with 15 miles still to go we decided that the gravel road we were on couldn’t possibly be the one mentioned in the hike description. So we turned around, got back on the 101 and took it to HW 119 which was dramatically better. So don’t listen to google if you go to this trailhead from the North, take highway 119 – it may be 10 miles longer, but it’ll be WAY easier.
The hike itself was beautiful and remote. More of that lovely temperate rainforest foliage and a babbling river near by. The hike also includes a fun suspension bridge crossing! For the distance it was off the 101 and the lack of data coverage, it did have a surprising number of people out there – I’m assuming it’s one of the preferred areas to explore for those Tacomans nearby.
Final Thoughts
Overall it was a fabulous trip. Being so close, I’m sure we’ll make our way up there again in the near future. I definitely have a bike trip out there on the radar – just don’t know when; not likely to happen this year. If we do another hiking trip up there I definitely want to stick to the north side, especially exploring Lake Crescent and Sol Duc area more. Those areas seemed to me to have the best bang for your buck. Although I am happy we got such a nice sampling of the whole Peninsula.
***Note most of the places mentioned in this post (aside from cities) required a National Parks Pass. Sequim Bay and Fort Warden State Parks require Discovery Passes
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