Olympic National Park is a short drive from Seattle (SEA), another major airport with lots of cheap flights. With lots of rain in this area, it’s a great park for camping.
Lot of people assume camping in rain to be unpleasant or uncomfortable, but for me, there’s no better sleep than in light rain with the white noise of water falling on the tents roof. I find it very relaxing.
My first camping trip in US was during a road trip from San Francisco to Portland, and all I can remeber about that camping trip is seeing the fresh green grass after waking up the next day. It’s a fabulous feeling that can’t be described in words.
Luckily for us, there was no rain during the day, so we could do a few hikes, and it started raining after sunset, which was perfect.
Hurricane Ridge
This was our first stop. It’s a view point from where you can see all the way up to Canada on clear days. However all we could see was clouds and more clouds.
Lake Cresent
Couple of short hikes near the lake
Madison Falls
Not sure if we didn’t go in the best season, but Madison Falls definitely didn’t live up to our expectations. The reviews looked amazing and the park ranger spoke recommended us to check out the falls, but it didn’t seem like taking a detour to check out the falls. There wasn’t anything wrong about the falls or the trail, there wasn’t anything particularly exciting either.
I’d definitely love to go in a different season and see if it I like it better next time.
Hoh rainforest
If there’s one thing I’d recommend checking out in the National Park, it has to be this. Most National Parks have something unique, and for Olympic National Park, it has to be this rainforest. The drive is beautiful and the climate is so different that it feels like being in a different country.
This is the reason Green has great healing power. It is the most restful color for the human eye. Just standing in the rainforest was so tranquil.
Emerald Valley Inn
This was a private campsite and we loved the friendly man who runs this place. They texted us to make sure they were ready for check in when we arrived. If you buy firewood from them, they offer to drop it off at your campsite when you arrive, which is a really nice gesture of them. They also have a restaurant next to the campsite which had great breakfast and coffee. Overall this is a super affordable (we spent around $20 for 3 people) and convinient campsite.
The highlight was looking at the lush green grass in morning, and the hot coffee from the restaurant nearby.
Oktoberfest
After a quick trip to the Olympic we returned to Seattle on Sunday evening, just in time to grab a few beers to celebrate Oktoberfest before the usual Monday morning routine of rushing to airports, and grabbing 3 coffees during the day at work.
While Olympic National Park is great, there’s another National Park near Seattle called the Mount Rainier National Park. The weekend I visited Olympic was originally planned for going to Mt. Rainier, but as with all my Mount Rainier plans since 2016, this plan to Mount Rainier also got cancelled. Time to look for Alaska Airlines next flight deal for Seattle then.
