I have been trying to call Lake Crescent Lodge, however the phone just rings for a long time and disconnects. I've tried calling 3 or 4 times throughout the day.

The park's "Alerts & Conditions" page specifically states the lodge is open and the lodge's website says the front desk should be available. However, google's listing for the lodge says it is "temporarily closed".

Is there any obvious reason why they might be closed? Is there another way to reach the lodge?

I'm looking to visit the park in January and most likely stay in Kalaloch but open to other suggestions. Haven't decided on how long of a stay but probably between 3-5 days. What are some of the best day hikes to do before it gets dark? Ideally would love to do hoh rainforest and the coast. Are road conditions nasty around this time? Was also considering stopping in at port angeles and port townsend.

Any advice or suggestions is appreciated.

My boyfriend and I are coming to Seattle from the Midwest for a conference. We are looking at renting a car and driving to Olympic for the day. Rental pick up is at 8am, so we would get to the park just before 11. What are some good trails for people with moderate experience that just want to see the most beautiful views and have fun? We know sun sets around 4 pm. :)

Looking for recommendations for what not to miss on this short 2 days in Olympic Park staying in Forks for one night.

Flying into Seattle at 10am on August 2, 2025 (a Saturday)

Rent a car and drive to Port Angeles.

Spent Saturday through Sunday night in Port Angeles at an AirBnB.

Saturday - check out the town

Sunday - go to Hurricane Ridge and check out the beaches around Port Angeles

Monday morning - drive to Forks. Stop on the way to check out Sol Duc falls/hot springs. Then check into AirBnB at forks

Tuesday - beach day. Start at Ruby Beach in the morning then drive our way up to Hole in the Wall.

Wednesday - go to Hoh Rainforest

Thursday - free day/play it by ear. Any suggestions appreciated

Friday - drive back to Seattle and stay the night there

Saturday, August 9 - fly back

To clarify this is me and my significant other.

Is this a bad idea? Stupid? Doable? Plan would be to stay in port Angeles as there are still decent Airbnbs available. I’m satisfied with location. Trip would be spread out enough so kids aren’t overwhelmed with the driving. I’m mostly concerned with weather and if anyone has insight taking two young kids during this season. The youngest is 2.5 years and would be carried for most of it. The oldest can handle pretty well. But very limited experience with rain.

Looking to do a 16 day road trip in July - (Seattle -> Olympic -> San Juan Island -> Mt. Baker -> North Cascades - > Rainier -> Mt. St. Helens -> OR/WA coast -> back up to Seattle to fly home)

We plan to rent a car and use a mix of car camping/AirBnb/Home Exchanges/Hotels.

1.) How many days would you suggest to stay around Olympic to get in a few good hikes and explore the area? Should I split my stay with a night in Forks area and another closer to PA?

2.) Trying to maximize my PTO by including some holidays on my trip; how crowded does it get on July 4th? Does the peninsula have any cool independence day activities or should we just avoid?

I'll be visiting ONP Nov 27-28. Since the Hurricane Ridge is not likely to open during thanksgiving, do I still need a tire chain/ do they check? If so, where can I rent one in Seattle or Port Angeles?

I'm undecided if I should backpack in the wind river vs olympic.

I'm trying to decide but it's very hard because both places look awesome :( But I only have 1 week of PTO so I must choose wisely!

Specifically I'm looking into the titcomb basin vs hoh rainforest vs enchanted valley

Had a trip planned right now for port Angeles and forks/Hoh, how're the conditions? Safe to visit?

Edit: Thanks, all. Hiked around crescent lake and hoh. Easy driving, great hiking weather.

Myself and one other person are planning a trip from March 15-20th. What does camping look like around that time of the year in the park. What are our options? As of right now we are planning on day one being Hoh rain forest, then day two being mora beach, and day 3 being the hot springs but we’re not sure where else to go.

Hello! Seeking recommendations for backpacking trips in or around Olympic National Park for August 2025. Thinking 3 nights max. I’ll be taking my father. He’s 75, but is great shape. Still, we don’t need to be climbing 4k feet a day. My main goal is to find something on the peninsula that has fantastic views. I appreciate your suggestions!

hey guys! I'm thinking of doing seasonal work with aramark summer 2025, I've heard bad things about Sol Duc Resort housing, and mixed opinions on Lake Crescent Lodge and Lake Quinault Lodge. Can anyone that's worked for aramark in olympic pls give me a review? I just have basic questions like what positions do they mainly hire for, how did the interview process go, what was housing like, etc?

Hi Reddit,

My friends and I are planning to visit the Olympic national park (and go to the beaches, Hoh & Hurricane Ridge if possible)

We’re renting a car out of Vancouver, BC & the rental company says that they don’t have winter tires.

We’re renting a AWD SUV (Kia Seltos or similar) with M+S tires and plan to get tire chains once we know exactly what car we’re getting.

None of us have a lot of experience driving in the snow, so wanted your opinion on whether we absolutely must get winter tires and shouldn’t consider making this trip without them, or are tire chains okay with M+S tires?

Additionally, if we don’t get winter tires, is it still safe to go to some parts of Olympic NP? Or should we just avoid the whole park in general.

Thanks in advance!

I'm 18 year old (soon to be 19) college student and was thinking about a trip to Olympic National Park. I plan on exploring the eastern side of the park or staying in a small area. I can't rent a car so how feasible would a trip like this be? Could I even get to the park from Seattle's airport?

I'm from California and will be visiting family in Everett for Thanksgiving. We had planned to stay a few days in Port Angeles and visit the park but it looks like most of the roads are closed leading us to think it's not worth visiting right now. Is there any reason to visit the park at this time or would it be a disappointment?

Locals are preparing fir strong winds and heavy rains on November19. Be careful at the beaches and watch for falling trees blocking roads.

I subscribe to these Sketchplanations emails and thought this group might find this interesting with all the hike discussions:
https://sketchplanations.com/naismiths-rule

Naismith's Rule for Estimating Walking Time in the Mountains

Hi! We’re visiting the Olympic Peninsula for the first time during the week before Christmas. We’ll be there for 5 full days (plus two travel days) and somehow we’re still having trouble fitting everything into our itinerary. I’m hoping someone can give us some perspective/suggestions on our plan.

Quick background- we’re backpackers and enjoy long hikes, but we are not experienced rainforest backpackers. So, we will probably do mostly lodging with a bit of car camping.

Day 1: Travel/Stay in Seattle Day 2: Drive to Lake Quinault, hike the loop/see the big Sitka spruce, drive to Kalaloch and see the tree of life, stay in Kalaloch. Day 3: Hike the Hoh River Trail all day, stay in Forks. Day 4: Get up early and Hike Shi Shi beach and Cape Flattery. Stay in Port Angelos. Day 5*: Snowshoe hurricane ridge (reserved winter shuttle ride to get there). Stay in port Angelos. Day 6: Mix of Mt Storm King and Sol Duc Falls. Stay in port Angelos. Day 7: Leave and travel.

*if hurricane ridge isn’t accessible because of road conditions, we plan to spend more time at either lake crescent or the sol duc trails.

Other destinations we thought about but didn’t include: Rialto beach-hole in the wall, Ozette triangle, staircase rapids, pony bridge, ruby beach, Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge.

If anyone thinks we should be prioritizing any of these or something else, please let us know. We also would love lodging/camping recs.

I've been hiking the coast of the Olympic peninsula and was wondering about access to the stretch along the Quinalt reservation. It's not national park land and I'm unsure about access, particularly, north of Taholah (Queen Elizabeth Road). This section of the coast is flanked by Queets river to the north and the Quinalt river to the south; so you cant just casually walk along the beach to reach it.

The only info I could find was the following from a site about scenic drives in Washington:

"The road continues north to Taholah, where it enters the Quinault Reservation. Most people will stop, as a permit is required to cross the bridge along the Quinault River. Once you cross the Quinault River, the road becomes Queen Elizabeth Road and leads to some of the most beautiful and rarely seen sections of coast in the country. If you are able to obtain access to this region, take full advantage of it and enjoy the ruggedness of the Washington Coast."

https://www.graysharbortalk.com/2015/04/18/5-scenic-nature-drives-grays-harbor/

Does anyone have experience with this? Gotten a permit? Or is this outdated? Once on the road, can you just park anywhere along the shoulder and just hike to coast?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

(I know this technically isn't ONP, but Im not sure what other forum this topic might fall under. :/)

I read somewhere that at low tide on Rialto, you can walk parallel to the jetty all the way out to Little James Island. A local Forks resident told me they didn't think that was possible, but they weren't sure.

Can anyone confirm that this is possible?

I’ll be at Olympic NP for one day next week! I’m a beginner hiker at best so I’m looking for some recs on easy hikes, good viewpoints, etc. from there I’ll be driving to Seattle after it gets dark so I’d like to not an extra hour or two getting out of the park if that’s possible.

And what should I expect road conditions to be? Snow?

TIA for your tips?

Me and my fiance are considering visiting Washington to elope and we would like some photos done at this national park. I find the scenery beautiful, far better then anything our home state can offer. My research has led me to believe it could be extremly rainy this month but I'm more curious on how green the park stays during this time.

Does anyone have pictures of what it looks like in April. I can't find any info on what it looks like during the spring. Any suggestions on trails or locations also.

Our group of 7 adults (2 older and 5 younger) will be coming from the port in Seattle on a Friday in July 2025 and have until the following Monday evening to be at the airport in Seattle. I am trying to plan my entire route from the port to ONP, and what our itinerary would be, and then returning to the airport on Monday. My hubby and I have bad knees so we can’t hike too much but we can do mild to moderate walks/hikes. I had originally planned to find a home base for the 3 nights, but from all the research I have done, it sounds like we need to stay somewhere different each night because of the travel time. I would really appreciate some help trying to figure this all out.

1st time Reddit user here. Hopefully I’m doing this correctly.

Hi all! Me and my boyfriend are visiting ONP in about a week for the first time and would love your input on my plan - wanna make the best of it but don't wanna be overly ambitious. Planning on 2 days, this is also before thanksgiving week if it makes any difference.

Here's what I have:
We're driving from Seattle early morning on a Saturday, visit the park, stay in Port angeles by Emerald Valley Inn/Hwy 101 for the night - then wake early on Sunday, visit the park, and drive back to Seattle whenever we're done

day 1:

• Cape Flattery
• Sol Duc Falls or Marymere Falls
• Hoh Forest

day 2:

• Rialto Beach Area, La Push, Ruby beach (not sure which one is more worth it, would love recommendations!)
• Forks Sign/Bella's truck (twilight fan lol)