Seattle>Sol Duc>ShiShi>HohRainforest>Olympia>Seattle
Traveled July 2016
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| Pano Selfie at the top of the rock at Third Beach |
Do you have a car? Are you in Seattle? Do you have 4 days to spend exploring a beautiful wilderness? YES YES YES! Well so did I, and I decided to go to the Olympic Peninsula. I also thought the internet could use the knowledge I gained from my excursion. So here it is! I bolded the locations I spent the most time in.
Go! You'll love it.
Itinerary
Day 1
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| Connecting with my inner soul-duck on the Sol Duc River |
- From Seattle Took Edmonds/Kingston Ferry $15
- Visited WIC in Port Angeles - should have bought a permit to camp at Shi Shi Beach! Planned to Camp at Olympic Hot Springs ROAD CLOSED*** Car Camped at Sol Duc instead $20
- Park Entrance = $25 collected at the toll booth on the road to Sol Duc, there was also a toll booth on the Hoh River Road, the receipt is good for a week, I passed mine on by leaving it with Jim at the rainforest hostel
- Shared my campsite with a rad couple from Spokane, they pitched in $15.
- Lake Crescent was beautiful but I was only driving through.
Day 2
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| Expressing my feelings about this campsite at Shi Shi Beach |
- Head out towards Neah Bay, Gas $20
- Hiked out to Shi Shi Beach (pronounced SHY SHY) Wished I'd had better mud shoes on! Steep at one part. VERY COOL BACKPACKING CAMPSITES IN THE TREES BY THE BEACH
- Point of Arches = Must-see,go at Low Tide. Having a wetsuit was awesome. I saw porpoises!
- Car Camped at Lake Ozette $20. Really wished I would have bought that permit and backpack-camped at Shi Shi. Lake Ozette itself was not that cool, but I didn’t hike the trails there and it was raining that night.
Day 3
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| This is the Happy Trails trailhead, where I was very happy |
- Drove out towards La Push to hike out to Third Beach and climbed the rock at the north end,
- ate a delicious salmon burger at the River’s Edge Restaurant in La Push $15 highly recommend, kept me going all day up to the waterfalls and was a lovely change from camping food
- Drove to Hoh Rainforest Visitor Center, Hiked up to the waterfalls 3 miles one way - very very cool. Glacial Blue River. The scrappy/ferny trails up the sides of the falls are fun to explore. Cross the log with the arrow on it.
- Stayed at the Rainforest Hostel $10. Talked about Bernie with the hostel owner, Jim, a very nice old hippy guy. This hostel is really for open-minded people only. The bed was not very comfortable and the roommate snored loudly, but I really enjoyed the philosophies of Jim and will go back.
Day 4
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| Foggy Morning at Ruby Beach |
- Foggy morning at Ruby Beach I didn't want to leave, dogs are allowed at this beach
- Began drive home
- Bought more gas in Amanda Park $22
- Stopped in Olympia for Lunch/Shopping/Saturday Farmers Market - bought the best cherries ever ($8.)
***A trip to Olympic Hot Springs is still possible if you have mountain bikes with you or want to hike 10 miles in to it. The road is closed because it is washed out, so it’s inaccessible to CARS. It is still accessible by hiking and biking. They might be fixing it and it might re-open soon but I don’t know, check the google.
When I was considering the 10 mile hike into the olympic hot springs I was wishing I had a Rad Power Bike (a super awesome fat-tire electric bicycle you should check out at http://www.radpowerbikes.com/pages/radrover) The company is based in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle and you can go to the store and test drive them for free! They're so fun!Excluding the groceries I bought prior to leaving, this trip cost me 15+20+25-15+20+20+15+10+22+8 = $140. So about $35 per day. Pretty cheap!
By the way there is NO CELL SERVICE once you get past the mountains, so ensure your vehicle is roadworthy as best you can and enjoy letting all those calls go straight to voicemail!
I made a few videos while I was out there too - mostly they are just me being really stoked and saying how cool everything looks in each place. I will post them or a link to them soon.
Peace and Stoked-ness,
K
