OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK

July, 2021

It’s a short 84 miles from Shelton to Sequim, but the RV GPS figures that by using the most direct route it’ll take two and a half hours. Two and a half hours? Well, the route is along the coast and follows the Hood Canal northward on US Highway 101 for 70 miles or so before the roadway takes a gradual sweeping semi-circular turn to the west for the remainder of the trip. But two and a half hours? The roadway north is a white-knuckle forested, twisty, narrow jaunt with no shoulders, substantial drop offs, blind turns, pull-outs for slower vehicles (Aimee perhaps?), and occasional small towns all of which slowed the speed in our motorhome down to a reasonable crawl. Once we could turn westward, we were able to travel at a decent 55 miles per hour or so. Well yeah, two and a half hours was just about right.

Sequim (the e is silent) is a town of 7,500 in the northern-most part of the Olympic Peninsula. Sequim Bay is to the east of town and is part of the larger Strait of Juan de Fuca which separates the US and Canada. The town’s notoriety is tow-fold: acres and acres of lilac fields abound, and a herd of 100 Roosevelt Elk roam the area freely. The elk have been tagged with a transmitter that “sets-off” a series of red lights on Highway 101 in warning of the herd approaching the roadway. There were no elk sightings during our stay, but the lavender was intoxicating.

There are many campgrounds all along the northern-most part of the Olympic Peninsula which stretches 160 miles from Port Townsend on the east to Neah Bay on the west and then 160 miles south to Aberdeen along the west coast. Some part of Olympic National Park is easily accessible from any campground along this route.

However, it takes a bit of time to get from here to there.

So why did we stay in Sequim? It’s 30 – 45 minutes to the larger cities of Port Townsend or Port Angeles. When visiting Olympic National Park it’s a little more than an hour to Lake Crescent or Marymere Falls, an hour and forty minutes to Hurricane Ridge, an hour and fifty minutes to the beaches, and two and a half hours to the Hoh Rain Forest. Perhaps it was not quite a centrally located home base from which to complete our plan for experiencing The Park, but then again perhaps it was just perfect…

Olympic National Park is the 4th most visited of our National Parks with over 4 million visitors annually. The Park encompasses 1442 square miles, 95% of which is designated as wilderness, and within The Park there are over 3,000 miles of rivers and streams fed by over 60 named glaciers. Mount Olympus at nearly 8,000 feet is its highest peak. The Hoh Rain Forest receives between 12 to 14 FEET of precipitation each year and is the only temperate rain forest in the contiguous Unites States. The coastline features 65 miles of beaches, sea stacks, and rocks. We found ourselves wanting to explore each of the 4 regions found within Olympic National Park – pacific coastal, forest, rain forest, and mountains – as well as the Park’s 3 ecosystems: subalpine forest and wildflower meadow, temperate forest, and the rugged pacific coast. We’re pretty sure that nowhere else in our country could we find such variety of Mother Natures’ creations in one place and all of it ready for endless exploring.

As with so many of the places we have visited we mapped out our first experiences highlighting the “not to be missed” attractions. For Olympic National Park those included Hurricane Ridge, Lake Crescent and Marymere Falls; Ruby, Rialto and Third Beach, and the Hoh Rain Forest.

Even though we had visited the Pacific Coast during our stay in Shelton, there was still hope that we could view migrating whales and resident orcas, puffins, and sea otters- from Ruby, Rialto and/or Third Beach, the National Park’s more famous beaches. We were disappointed that we did not view any sea life, but we did have a wonderful hike through the coastal forest and great views of sea stacks and the Pacific Ocean. And the bonus of differing weather conditions made for some wonderful pictures.

We also stopped by Pacific State Park in the hopes of catching a view of sea life…at least the gulls and a lone pelican were willing to pose for a picture.

Lake Crescent is a stunning 624-feet deep glacier-carved lake outlined by rolling hills and a forested mountain range…amazingly blue waters – beautiful!

It was an easy hike through the rainforest to Marymere Falls at Lake Crescent…

Carving its way from Mount Olympus towards the Pacific Coast Beaches, the Hoh River winds its way through the temperate rain forest that bears its name. The Hoh Rain Forest has a lush, green canopy of both coniferous and deciduous tree species including Sitka Spruce, Red Cedar, Big Leaf Maple and Douglas Fir; mosses and ferns blanket its surfaces. The rain forest averages 140 inches (3.55 meters; just under 12 feet) of precipitation each year; most of it falling from late fall through early spring. Hiking trails are well marked, the shortest of which is 0.8 miles, the longest a 34-mile multi-day round trip. The Hall of Mosses trail afforded us a terrific introduction to the uniqueness of The Hoh Rain Forest.

Climbing from 65 feet above sea level upwards to 5,242 feet Hurricane Ridge affords the most spectacular views in Olympic National Park. The roadway winds its way from the Port Angeles Visitors Center to the Visitors Center at the Summit – turn-outs and parking lots along the way gave us ever more awesome views.

From the Visitors Center several hiking trails are available. Head out in one direction and you can see across the Strait of Juan de Fuca onto the shores of Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

But the most stunning vistas were from the higher elevation vantage points facing east and southeast…we easily imagined ourselves in the Swiss Alps.

What a magnificent place in our Country! Barbara fell in love with the mountain views from Hurrican Ridge, and Brian was blown away by Mother Nature on display in Olympic National Park.

Barbara and Brian

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.“ – Henry David Thoreau