Exploring Seattle: The Olympic Peninsula
Alright, so it’s not really Seattle… but you can circumnavigate the entire Olympic Peninsula, see the mountains, the beaches and the rainforest, and still get home in time for dinner. Of course, doing the whole thing in a single day might be a little ambitious. So, we only drove 3/4 of the way around the peninsula and back on Memorial Day, and it was still a 14-hour trip mostly spent in the car. My recommendation: It’s a worthwhile destination for a weekend getaway, but take two days and camp or get a hotel to break up the driving.
Here’s a quick pictorial:
We journeyed all the way to the Hoh Rainforest, because, well, I’d never seen a temperate rainforest. Or any rainforest. It was strangely sunny in the rainforest, and I have to say, I really enjoyed the Visitor Center’s exhibits explaining how the rainforest came to be, and how it gets something like 140+ inches of rain per year, compared to Seattle’s 34 inches. Apparently we hit the rainforest on the wrong day, though, because our friends who trekked the Hall of Mosses trail the day before saw a whole family of elk.
To get to the rainforest, we had to journey past Lake Crescent. Seeing it on the way to and from the rainforest was probably my favorite part of the day. It was a nearly surreal shade of blue, and while it had a few small houses on it, remained mostly empty- certainly calm and peaceful. I grew up around lakes that always had speedboats zipping around them, so this perfectly calm, perfectly blue lake surrounded by mountains was incredible.
On the way back, we swung by Rialto Beach. I was pretty impressed by the seastacks- they give the beaches a kind of haunted quality, particularly when combined with the acres and acres of gigantic tree trunks left to dry on the beaches. Again, surreal is the only word I really have to describe it- surreal and haunting. Perhaps it would seem more welcoming on a sunny day, but the greys and blues and jagged tree limbs and jutting cliffs in the ocean made the whole scene a little forbidding and atmospheric, like the set of some seaside horror movie.
On the way back to the ferry, we were lucky enough to be driving by Sequim Bay at the perfect time to catch the sunset near the Jamestown S’Klallam tribal lands. It was a beautiful day, and I’m certain we’ll be going back- we didn’t even get to Hurricane Ridge, which I hear is amazing. Plus we got the $30 yearly pass to the National Park, so we kind of have to go back once or twice to get our money’s worth out of it.
But even without the park pass, I think it’s a lovely, quiet vacation destination that Seattleites should take advantage of- I certainly will be. I’m certainly willing to take suggestions on where else along the Olympic Peninsula to visit, though- do you guys have any favorite campgrounds or hidden trails?
Related posts:
I went to the Hoh Rain Forest a few years back and loved it.
A few years ago I spent Christmas with some friends and family in a cabin at Kalaloch Lodge, not far from the entrance to the Hoh Rain Forest. It was storm season, and we sat in our cabin and watched the waves toss those several-ton-logs around like Tinkertoys.
It’s beautiful country over there.
That sounds really fun, Colin!