Olympic National Park

One of the largest temperate rain forests in North America, where Sitka spruce, western hemlock, and bigleaf maple stand draped in club moss. The Hoh averages about 140 inches of rain a year per NPS, among the wettest places in the contiguous United States. The Hall of Mosses is a 0.8-mile loop, flat and short, and most legs can finish it under an hour. The Hoh Rain Forest Road backs up for hours on summer mornings; reach the gate at opening or after 3 p.m. The valley has no cell coverage. This is the homeland of the Hoh nation, whose reservation sits downstream at the river mouth.

The one place in the park where you reach alpine meadow without a long hike. A 17-mile paved road climbs from Port Angeles to a subalpine ridge at 5,242 feet, with Mount Olympus (7,980 ft) and its glaciers across the Elwha valley, per NPS. Black-tailed deer and Olympic marmots are routine at the meadow edges. The Hurricane Ridge Day Lodge burned on May 7, 2023; the area reopened that June and now runs with no food service or indoor warming shelter at the top, so pack your own and dress in layers. The road is winter-status-variable; check the park before a cold-season drive.

The easiest coastal access in the park: a short walk from the US 101 pullout drops onto a beach of sea stacks, driftwood, and tidepools at low water, named for the reddish garnet sand. Check a tide table before walking, sold at park visitor centers, because rising tide can cut off headland passage. The tsunami evacuation signs along this coast are not decorative; the Cascadia Subduction Zone sits offshore. See the NPS coast page for current beach conditions.

A three-channel fall on the Sol Duc River, reached by a 1.6-mile round-trip that is mostly flat through old-growth forest, one of the easier waterfall payoffs in the park per NPS. The Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort, a concessioner, runs seasonal mineral soaking pools a short drive back down the road. Salmon Cascades, on the same road, draws spawning coho in mid-October. Sol Duc Road closes past Salmon Cascades in winter.

A glacially carved lake on US 101 west of Port Angeles, 624 ft deep and unusually clear because the water is low in nitrogen, which starves the algae, per NPS. It is the starting point for the Marymere Falls hike and the home of the historic 1916 Lake Crescent Lodge on the south shore. See the NPS Lake Crescent page.

A cobble-and-driftwood beach at the mouth of the Quillayute River near Mora. Hole-in-the-Wall, a sea-arch headland, sits about 1.5 miles up the beach and is only passable at lower tides, the single most tide-dependent kid hike on the coast per the NPS coast page. Bald eagles work the surf line; parking and pit toilets are at the Mora end. Rialto fronts Quileute territory, with the reservation across the river at La Push.

A Robert Reamer-designed lodge built in 1926 on the south shore of Lake Quinault, where FDR stayed during his 1937 peninsula tour. The Quinault Rain Forest is the quieter sister to the Hoh, with shorter lines and the world's largest Sitka spruce nearby, per NPS. It makes a good base for families who want rain forest without the Hoh Road queue, and a reliable rainy-day fallback. The valley sits in Quinault Indian Nation territory.

The historic 1926 lodge with a lakefront lawn, a fireplace lobby, and seasonal boat rentals on the south side of the park. It is a concessioner property; book months ahead for summer. The most family-comfortable in-park-adjacent lodging on the south side, and the best fallback when the Hoh is socked in. See the concessioner page for rooms and dates.

The wild-coast viewpoint at the west end of the Ozette Triangle, reached on a cedar-boardwalk-and-beach loop of about 9 miles, per the NPS Ozette Loop page. Petroglyphs at Wedding Rocks sit on the beach leg, and the boardwalk is slick when wet. This is the quietest of the wild-coast day hikes, and tide-dependent on the beach segment. Cape Alava overlooks the Ozette village in Makah territory, documented archaeologically in the 1970s and interpreted at the Makah Cultural and Research Center.

The Rialto Beach parking area at Mora is a roadside sunset viewpoint over driftwood and sea stacks, with no hiking required, per the NPS coast page. The Mora Campground sits a couple of miles inland on the Quillayute River, first-come and then reservable in summer. Pair the pullout with a low-tide walk toward Hole-in-the-Wall.

The shortest old-growth walk in the park: bigleaf maples hung with club moss over a forest floor of fern and nurse logs. NPS gives the loop as about 0.8 miles, mostly flat and doable with most kids. It pairs with the adjacent Spruce Nature Trail (1.2 miles) for families who want more.

The Lake Crescent kid-classic: a forest walk from the Storm King area, under US 101, along Barnes Creek to a 90-foot fern-walled cascade, with two short stair loops at the top for an upper and lower view. NPS gives it as a 1.8-mile round-trip (0.9 mile each way), paved then natural with a short climb to the falls, per the NPS Lake Crescent brochure. See the NPS Lake Crescent page.

The most reliable sit-down meal on the south side, walkable from the lodge rooms and the lake lawn, named for FDR's 1937 stay. The cuisine is Pacific Northwest American; reservations are advised in summer. See the concessioner page. The photo shows the lodge exterior, not the dining room interior.

The Elwha Dam (removed 2012) and Glines Canyon Dam (removed 2014) came down in what was then the largest dam-removal project in U.S. history, since surpassed by the lower Klamath removals in 2024. Salmon are recolonizing the upper river, per USGS. A family can stand on the old reservoir flats, now growing back in alder and willow, and watch a river that was cut in two run free. The Lower Elwha Klallam Nation, ʔéʔɬx̣ʷaʔ nəxʷsƛ̕áy̕əm̕, "The Strong People," led the push for the removal and the salmon's return.

The Roosevelt elk is the animal the park was first protected for: Theodore Roosevelt's 1909 Mount Olympus National Monument guarded their summer range, per NPS. Herds are reliable at dawn and dusk in the Hoh and Quinault valleys, and bulls bugle in the fall rut. Give them room; these are large wild animals, not zoo deer.