Encountering all the Wildlife in Olympic Nat’l Park

Because life, this post is very much a recollection of a beautiful trip, as opposed to actual “we just returned and remember every single detail”. So let’s start with some summary comments to jog my memory, guided by photos.

Olympic National Park is snuggled up right next to Canada and the Pacific. There are many cool facts about it, that I will leave to the internet to convey if you’re interested. The ones that interested me the most and were pertinent to trip planning:

• You can drive around the park, but you can’t drive through it. At the heart of the park is Mt Olympus and various other adjacent peaks and a handful of glaciers. Going outwards from that lofty center are glacially carved valleys with super steep sides, that are now thickly forested. Roads go up some of those valleys, but not over any valley walls really – you have to stick to the ring road to get all the way around the park.
• The inland side of the park is fairly dry, while the ocean-adjacent side is incredibly wet. We drove counter-clockwise around the park, starting near Seattle, so the first few photos are on the dry side. Compare that to the misty, rainforest-adjacent historic lodge we stayed in a couple nights later to see the difference.
• There are bears!

Ok, onto the trip. This was our official national park trip for 2021, so we wanted to get in both a bit of hiking and a bit of non-camping relaxing inside. As a result, the trip ended up feeling like a handful of mini trips:

1. Get from Seattle into the park. After stocking up on food and fuel, we started driving towards the north side of the park. Along the way we visited a 3 mile-long sand spit (Ediz Hook) that reaches up towards Canada, and the adjacent town of Port Angeles. This is where the Twilight references really start to ramp up. We also did a lovely hike up Hurricane Ridge, along with many other people. The views were excellent – particularly of the Olympus massif – and we ran into quite a lot of grouse along the way.
2.  Hike the High Divide. This was a top 5 prettiest hike we’ve ever done, hands down. You walk through a redwood forest up to tree line, roll up a ridge and camp next to a lake just below it, continue down the ridge the next day and then stroll by a handful of perfect lakes before merging back into the redwood forest trail and arriving back at the car. Our campsite by the lake had amazing views of Mt Olympus et al (and a different aspect than the previous day), which we got to see in daylight, dusk, dawn, etc. By the time we got back to the car we’d counted 14 bear sightings, one of which was a little too close for comfort (but great for photos). If you find the photos of the trail that cuts across the very steep hillside, that’s the spot – we couldn’t realistically go above or below, and we couldn’t re-route because we had to continue along that ridge. So we very nonchalantly and quietly walked by, slower as we approached and then increasingly faster as we got farther away.
3. The actual misty ocean-side and real rainforest. After driving through Forks (yes, that Forks), we did a nice oceanside walk on a misty, cold afternoon that took us by some huge rocks standing out in the surf. And after continuing on, we made it to the Lake Quinault Lodge, which had recently re-opened its food and bev operations post-covid. This was good not just because it was convenient, but also because there’s really not much else going on out there restaurant-wise. We did a couple hikes and drives around the area, some with at least 120% humidity. The fog/mist never really let up, but that seemed true to form for the area. We had a lovely time.

And that pretty much was it. We spend the last night of the trip in Seattle after having a great rooftop dinner with Max and Katherine. Amazing trip!