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Olympic National Park 3-Day Itinerary
Olympic National Park (Olympic national park) is located in the northwestern part of Washington State, almost three hours' drive from Seattle. The main landscapes include snow-capped mountains, temperate rainforests, and seashores and hot springs, among which the temperate rainforests are quite special, and the Hoh rainforests are the most humid and wet places on the North American continent, with their rich ecological landscapes.
In terms of transportation, if you start from Seattle, Olympic national park many people take the ferry to come, but this time because we are driving to Mt Rainier first, so we take the southern land road, from Mt Rainier directly to the northwest to drive into the Olympic national park area. From Mt Rainier, we drove directly northwest into the Olympic National Park. This direction is usually less traveled by tourists, and we went through forks, ports angeles, and then back to Seattle, which happened to be a three-day trip again. The three-day itinerary is from south to north.
- Day 1: Travel through the Quinault Rain Forest, focusing on the Hoh Rain Forest, and then spend the afternoon at the beach near the Fork where we are staying.
- Day 2: The next day, we arranged Sol Duc Hot Springs and Mona Beach Trail in Olympic National Park, Mona is on the beach, there are a lot of trails, we took Rialto beach which was mentioned by a lot of people, and we had time to pick some small trails in the neighborhood to walk on, and exhausted ourselves. After exhausting ourselves, we went to Sol Duc Hot Springs resort in the afternoon to take a rest in the hot springs.
- Day 3: Climb High ridge trail at Hurricane ridge, dinner in Port Angeles.
Attractions
Quinault rain forest
Quinault rain forest is a rainforest, not many tourists come here, probably because it is similar to the rainforest in other popular areas of Olympic national park. You can take a rest at the south shore of Lake Quinault, there are many trails and campgrounds nearby.
There is a trail with the world's largest sitka spruce (North American spruce). The trail itself is short and won't take long, but if you want to spend more time, the nearby lake is beautiful and a great spot for a picnic.
Hoh Rain Forest
Hoh Rain Forest this area is Olympic national park most representative of the temperate rainforest area, the development of the rainforest area better than other rainforest areas, this side of the visitor center also has a very detailed explanation of the rainforest, show quite interesting.
Starting from the Visitor Center, there are four main trails, the shortest of which is only 0.1 mile and can be completed in three minutes right next to the Visitor Center. The highlights are the Hall of Mosses trail, which is only 0.8 miles long, and the Spruce trail, which is 1.1 miles long, which are best not to be missed. The longest trail is the Hoh river trial, which is 18.5 miles long.
The rainforest scenery is really spectacular, there are a lot of moss covered rainforest everywhere, the whole piece of green, no wonder it is called Hall of mosses.
The temperatures in the temperate rainforest are not very high, so although the trail is humid, it is quite comfortable to walk. With an annual rainfall of up to 170 inches, the rainforest plants grow vigorously, making it difficult to maintain a walkable trail. The trunks and branches of the trees are covered with hairy moss. Although they like to grow on the trees, they are not parasitic plants, but rely on sunlight and air to grow.
There is a special sense of adventure in walking through such a rainforest. In fact, the movie Twilight was filmed in the nearby town of Forks, where the weather and the natural landscape make it easy to create a fantasy atmosphere.
Commonly found in rainforests are mushrooms, of which there are many varieties.
Forks: Beach 2
After the rainforest trail, we drove to Forks, originally wanted to go to a few beaches, but because it was getting late, we just quickly passed by Beach 2. It was too cloudy and foggy at dusk, so we didn't get to see the sunset, which was very much like the mystical feeling of the Twilight Zone.
I was lucky to see a whole flock of Elk foraging.
Mona District
A trip along the coast of Olympic national park is not to be missed, and there are plenty of trails along the beaches near Mona.
From time to time, you will come across interesting creatures on the road. This kind of creature is called banana slug, and it really looks like a banana.
We saw more shiitake mushrooms on the road than we saw in the Hoh rainforest, and they grew huge.
Rialto beach
Rialto beach is a famous beach here, if you time it right, you can see the intertidal zone, but we didn't calculate in advance, we realized that the tide was almost full, we could only see a few sea urchins and hermit crabs. It was a cloudy day, so I didn't get a very good picture, but after standing on the beach for a while, I suddenly realized that the rock in front of me was a seal. It was so well integrated that it didn't move even though there were many people walking around, and I didn't notice it at all.
Sol duc Hot Springs
Sol duc is a local aboriginal language meaning bubbling water. There is also a legend about the origin of the hot springs... It is said that there were two dragons living here, one in elhwa and the other in sol duc... They used to be in the same place, but one day they found out about each other's existence and suddenly fought... and after many years of fighting, they went home and cried when they didn't want to fight any more, and the tears they shed turned into the hot springs. Do not ask why the dragon fight half do not want to fight to go home and cry, I read the story also feel very strange... In short, hot springs is how it came about.
Sol duc Hot Springs resort
Olympic national park's famous onsen ryokanSol duc Hot Springs resort, we stayed here for one night. Accommodation for the night is in a cabin right next to the hot springs.
American hot springs are not quite the same as what Asians think of as hot springs, they are all soaked in pools, some people simply start swimming in the big pools. There are three different temperatures of the hot spring pool, rare in the United States to enjoy a little time to soak in the pool, we are still more accustomed to the hottest pool. Our skin got a little itchy after soaking for a long time, so we couldn't soak for a long time.
The second night's accommodation, Sol duc hot spring, has a dining room attached. It is actually a pretty good restaurant in the Olympic National Park area, but it is understaffed, so don't expect too much from the service. The food is not pretty, but it's a rare chance to have a good meal. Breakfast was better than dinner.
Sol duck trail
Five minutes drive from the hotel is the Sol duck trail, a rainforest trail with waterfalls that is very refreshing in the morning.
Hurricane ridge
Hurricane ridge should be the most popular area in Olympic national park. Unlike the previous areas in Olympic national park, which are characterized by temperate rainforest, this is the snowy mountain view. Coming to Hurricane ridge actually depends on your luck, it is said that it is always foggy. We were lucky, the weather looked great, and the valley next to the parking lot was breathtaking.
Next to the parking lot is the visitor center, went in and found that the long hurrican ridge trail is now closed because the park is trying to catch the goats on the trail back to the north cascade. originally the hurrican ridge trail should not have goats, the presence of goats destroyed the ecosystem, so the park decided to go ahead with the project after a few considerations. So the park decided to go ahead with it after some deliberation. The live video also explains that the goats were blindfolded and lifted by helicopter, which was indeed a big job.
High ridge trail
Although we can't take the hurricane ridge trail, there are several loops outside the visitor center, so we spent the whole day on the high ridge trail. There are a lot of wildlife here. Before we reached the trailhead, we saw some deer. I was surprised to see that the deer were not only not afraid of people, but also dared to confront with the dogs on the road.
The view from the top of the mountain is very beautiful. There are two small raised summits in the middle of the gray mountain, called Unicorn horn, and the longer ridge on the other side is the hurricane ridge trail that we couldn't go on.
From here, you can see the mountains of Vancouver, Canada.
Turn left after the lookout and this relatively narrow trail follows the ridge to the other side of the mountain.
Turn back the way you came, and then continue on the other side of the trail to go back to the original starting point. Although the trail is a bit narrow in some places, it is generally very gentle and easy to walk, and after a slight uphill climb, you will reach the highest point of the trail. From here, you can see the beautiful V-shaped valley below. When I came here, I met an old granny who was accompanied by a young man and climbed the whole circle. As she walked along, she said it was a great adventure, so cute.
I met a cute groundhog on the way down.
Port Angeles
Port Angeles is a small harbor town, with beautiful sea view when the weather is good. It is also the town with the most delicious restaurants within the Olympic National Park area. We had a seafood dinner in Port Angeles to officially end the trip.
Restaurant Tips | Kokopelli Grill
The seafood restaurant we ate at Port angeles is called Kokopelli Grill, we ordered a grilled oyster, halibut stuffed crab, and seafood combo, and the main meal was served with a side of cilantro rice, which I thought was pretty good, and it was a great meal after a week in the National Parks. The only drawback is that the restaurant is very popular and the waiting time is very long.
Further reading
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