visited olympic 7/11- 14 as part of a longer trip. first time visitor. we came in from the east from north cascades via the coupeville ferry to port townsend

below is the route map for the week

olympic is well documented in pictures, this will be a news-you-can-use review mainly for people who've never been there before. plus, my wife took all the pix

DAY 1:
8:45am ferry from coupeville to port townsend, takes about an hour. we had planned to go straight to hurricane ridge, but...since the visitors center there burned down, evidently they dont have enough bathrooms there so they are closing the road for the day once a certain number of cars have entered. so, we couldnt go as they are filling up by 8:30am every morning. it was a clear day too. if hurricane ridge is on your list, make sure you are at the road checkpoint by 7am.

so we continued on. if it's your thing, in sequim is the nicest dispensary i've ever been to, on the indian reservation right on 101, called cedar greens. well supplied, we stopped in port angeles to get trail snacks and go to the visitors center. next stop once in the park was marymere falls (skip it) and a nice forest hike down part of the barnes creek trail at storm king trailhead (highly recommend). by that time it was late afternoon so we headed to sol duc hot springs resort for the next 2 nites.

after check-in, we made a cocktail and hiked to sol duc falls (don't miss) and about 2 miles down the sol duc river trail. beautiful forest, definitely take this hike.

the resort is nice, cabins are nice, dinner was way better than it needed to be, and the hot springs pool soak was great

DAY 2:
woke up crack of dawn and made it to hoh rainforest trailhead by 6:30am. this is the crown jewel of the park, words (or pictures) don't do it justice. everyone should see this at least once. absolutely spellbinding. we walked both short loops before the crowds go there, pretty much had it to ourselves. after that we walked 4 miles out and back down the hoh river trail, even better than the loops. by the time we got back, it was tourista armageddon, massive crowds and a line of cars waiting to get in many miles long. so, get there early

from there we drove to forks (cool town), had lunch at a burger drive-in, and headed to rialto beach to catch low tide. definitely get a tide chart for beach visits. it was crowded but once in and on the beach you can get separation. we hiked to split rock and hole-in-the-wall, and low tide revealed amazing tidepools. unbelievably beautiful.

back to sol duc for dinner and a hot spring soak.

DAY 3:
got up early again and drove up to cape flattery (NW-most point of CONUS) thru sekiu and neah beach. we didnt know what to expect but this was a major highlight of the visit. if you have the time, don't miss it. we caught the Strait of Juan de Fuca beaches at low tide (on accident), and theres tons of pull-offs on the highway where you can walk down to the beaches and have them all to yourselves. again, words can't describe how cool this area is.

in neah bay you enter the makah reservation, and you need to pay for a visitor permit to go up to the cape. crowded but not like the park, theres a short hike to the lookout thru another beautiful forest. we saw massive sea lions down below and the view is not to be missed.

from there we drove to ruby beach. i thought rialto beach was going to be the best beach...i was wrong. definitely go see rialto beach, but if you want to spend a beach day (especially with kids), do it at ruby beach. much less crowded, twice as pretty, and it's a kid's dream come true. you could spend all day here and they'd never get bored. there were kids making rafts out of driftwood and paddling them around in a big inside tidepool

. we caught it at low tide and again there were tidepools and rocks to climb all over. don't miss

from ruby beach we headed down the coast to kalaloch lodge for the night. in hindsight i would have done 2 nites there instead of sol duc. got dinner (very good) then headed to the beach for a stroll and to watch the sunset. built a big ole fire in the fireplace in the room that night.

DAY 4:
we had intended a leisurely departure but united cancelled our 1pm flight at 5:30 in the morning, so we scrambled to get packed and raced the three hours to sea-tac to catch an 11:30am flight to SF. that sucked, but we made it with just a few minutes to spare

general notes:
we needed one more day. 4 nights would have been perfect. we didnt get to hurricane ridge, ozette or quinault. highway 101 runs around the park mostly, and its a commercial state highway so be careful. forks is cool and you can get gas, groceries, supplies, etc all there as needed. if your kids read the twilight books, this is where they are set. get to the main attractions EARLY. all the trails we hiked are easy and flat, very kid-friendly. if you want to do a backpacking trip, this is the place to do it.

easily top-5 of any place we've ever been, and we will be back