The complete 330-mile circuit — all three ecosystems, the Makah coast, and the Sequim rain shadow, sequenced.
Olympic National Park is actually three parks sharing a border: an alpine wilderness, a temperate rainforest, and 73 miles of wilderness coast. Most people visit one. This loop visits all of them — plus the Makah Nation's dramatic northwestern corner, the Lake Quinault rainforest that gets almost no traffic, and the lavender fields of the Sequim rain shadow as a final counterpoint to all that wet. Seven days is the minimum. If you have nine, take them.
Season: July through September is the only window when all three ecosystems are fully accessible simultaneously: Hurricane Ridge trails snow-free, Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort open, high-country routes passable, and the coast in its most accessible season for hiking the wilderness shoreline. The tradeoff is crowds — the Hoh and Hurricane Ridge are busy in summer. The antidote is early starts and mid-week timing.
Temps: 72°F high / 48°F low
Packing: Pack for three climates in one trip: windproof shell and sunscreen for the ridge, waterproof layers for the rainforest, and broken-in boots for the coast (wet sand and beach boulders). Tide tables are non-negotiable for coast hiking — download them before you lose cell service. A NW Forest Pass or America the Beautiful annual pass covers all Olympic NP entry.
Day 1: Alpine First
The loop starts at the top. Arriving in Port Angeles and driving straight up to Hurricane Ridge before you've done anything else sets the scale of the park immediately — you've climbed 5,242 feet in 17 miles and the entire Olympic range is in front of you. Everything that follows takes place in the shadow of what you saw from that ridge.
- 09:00 AM Hurricane Ridge — Arrival — 17 miles of switchbacks from Port Angeles to the 5,242-foot ridge — the full Olympic panorama on arrival.
- 09:30 AM Hurricane Hill Trail — The ridge's most rewarding trail — 360-degree views, summer wildflowers, and Olympic marmots on the slopes.
- 01:00 PM Descend and Drive to Lake Crescent — 45-minute descent back to US-101, then 20 miles west to Lake Crescent Lodge check-in.
- 03:00 PM Lake Crescent Lodge — Check-In and Paddle — Historic 1916 lakeside lodge on a glacially carved lake of extraordinary clarity — paddle before the afternoon winds build.
- 07:00 PM Dinner — Lake Crescent Lodge Dining Room — The lodge dining room with lakefront windows — Pacific NW seafood, the lake catching the last light.
Day 2: Sol Duc and the First Coast
Sol Duc valley delivers the park's most concentrated single-day experience: the falls before the crowds, the mineral pools while the old-growth forest is still in morning shadow, and then west to the coast and the Quileute Nation's La Push — sea stacks in the surf, the most photogenic sunset beach on the peninsula.
- 07:45 AM Sol Duc Falls — Three channels of water converging in a basalt gorge — the park's most spectacular waterfall, best before 9 AM.
- 09:30 AM Sol Duc Hot Springs — Morning Soak — Three geothermal pools in old-growth forest, operating since 1912 — the park's best rest stop.
- 11:30 AM Drive to Forks — Lunch at In the Woods Café — Small café in Forks with homemade soups — the best midday stop between Sol Duc and the coast.
- 01:30 PM La Push — Second Beach — A 0.7-mile trail through forest to one of the wildest beaches on the coast — sea stacks, surf, and an extraordinary sunset.
- 06:30 PM Check In — Quileute Oceanside Resort — Tribally owned resort on First Beach at La Push — sea stack views, river mouth, open Pacific.
Day 3: The Makah Coast
The far northwest corner of the contiguous United States belongs to the Makah Nation — and it contains the most remote and dramatic coastline in Washington. Shi Shi Beach and the Point of the Arches are sea-stack cathedrals that rival anything on the Oregon coast. Cape Flattery, the northwesternmost point in the lower 48, looks out at open Pacific with nothing but ocean between you and Japan. You need a Makah Recreation Pass for both. Buy it at the museum first — the museum itself is worth an hour.
- 08:30 AM Makah Museum — Neah Bay — The Ozette excavation collection — one of the most significant archaeological finds in North America. Mandatory before the hike.
- 10:00 AM Cape Flattery — The northwesternmost point in the contiguous US — a boardwalk trail to open Pacific, sea arches, and nesting birds.
- 12:00 PM Drive to Shi Shi Beach Trailhead + Provisions — 30 minutes from Cape Flattery to the Shi Shi trailhead — pack lunch from Neah Bay before departing.
- 01:00 PM Shi Shi Beach & Point of the Arches — The most remote and dramatic beach on the Olympic coast — sea stack cathedrals and a tide pool field at the Point of the Arches.
- 07:30 PM Return — Forks or Port Angeles for Overnight — Drive south from Neah Bay — 1.5 hrs to Forks, 2 hrs to Port Angeles depending on next morning's destination.
Day 4: Into the Hoh
The Hoh at dawn is a different forest than the one the day hikers encounter at 10 AM. The light is horizontal and green, the river is at full voice, and the Hall of Mosses — the bigleaf maples draped floor-to-ceiling in club moss — is empty of everyone except you. Walk into it without an agenda. The forest does not need you to understand it or photograph it. Walk slowly and go deeper than you planned.
- 07:30 AM Hall of Mosses — Dawn — The Hoh's most famous 0.8-mile loop, before the parking area fills with summer visitors.
- 09:15 AM Hoh River Trail — Go Deeper — The valley trail runs 17 miles toward Mount Olympus. Walk at least 4 miles. The forest at mile three is different from mile one.
- 01:30 PM Lunch — Visitor Center or Forks Provisions — Simple food before the afternoon rest — the visitor center has basics, Forks has more.
- 03:30 PM Check In — Hoh Valley Cabins — Four modern cabins in a forested meadow with private rainforest access and elk at dawn.
Day 5: The Wild Coast
The Olympic wilderness coast is not a beach destination in any conventional sense. There are no developed facilities, no lifeguards, no services. The surf is cold, the logs are dangerous in storm surge, and the tide tables are essential reading. What the coast offers instead is the Pacific in its undeveloped state: 73 miles of shoreline where the only human infrastructure is the trail signs and the primitive campsites. This day covers three of the best access points.
- 08:00 AM Rialto Beach — Hole-in-the-Wall — 3 miles round trip to a natural sea arch accessible at low tide — the classic Olympic coast walk.
- 12:00 PM Drive South on US-101 to Kalaloch — 1-hour drive from La Push to Kalaloch — the coastal stretch of US-101 passes through old-growth before reaching the coast.
- 01:30 PM Kalaloch Beach 4 — Tide Pools — Five miles south of Kalaloch Lodge — the peninsula's best accessible tide pooling, arrive 1 hour before low tide.
- 03:30 PM Kalaloch Lodge — Check In — NPS-managed historic lodge on the bluff above the wild coast — the bluff-edge cabins are extraordinary.
- 07:30 PM Ruby Beach Sunset Walk — The Olympic coast's most dramatic sea stack beach, 3 miles north — best in the hour before sunset.
Day 6: The Quinault and the South
The Quinault rainforest is the Hoh's quieter southern sister — the same bigleaf maples, the same towering conifers, a fraction of the visitors. The world's largest Sitka spruce lives here: 1,000 years old, 58 feet in circumference, so large that a single person cannot perceive its full scale without walking its circumference. The Lake Quinault Lodge, built in 1926, is where FDR ate lunch during a 1937 visit that accelerated the park's establishment. The dining room is still serving.
- 08:00 AM Quinault Rain Forest Loop — 3-mile loop through moss-draped maples and giant conifers — the south side's answer to the Hoh, with far fewer people.
- 10:30 AM Lake Quinault Lodge — Porch and Grounds — The 1926 NPS rustic lodge on the south shore of Lake Quinault — explore the grounds before lunch.
- 12:00 PM Lunch — Roosevelt Dining Room — The lodge's historic dining room — the Dungeness crab chowder and the porch view are the move.
- 02:00 PM Drive North to Port Angeles or Port Townsend — 2.5 hours north to Port Angeles (final night near the ridge) or 3 hours to Port Townsend (ferry arc).
Day 7: The Rain Shadow and the Ferry
The Sequim rain shadow is one of the stranger geographic facts on the peninsula: 18 miles east of the wettest place in the contiguous US, Sequim receives only 16 inches of rain per year — less than Los Angeles. The Olympic Mountains block the Pacific moisture so completely that the Dungeness Valley is dry enough for lavender farming. The spit that extends 7 miles into the Strait of Juan de Fuca is the longest natural sand spit in the United States. And the ferry from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island, or from Kingston to Seattle, is the best possible way to close a loop that started in the mountains.
- 09:00 AM Sequim Lavender Trail (mid-July peak) — The Dungeness Valley lavender farms — peak bloom mid-July, open daily in season, the most unexpected counterpoint to a rainforest trip.
- 11:00 AM Dungeness Spit — The longest natural sand spit in the United States — 7 miles into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, with the New Dungeness Lighthouse at the end.
- 01:30 PM Drive to Kingston or Port Townsend Ferry — 1 hour to Kingston ferry (direct to Seattle) or 45 min to Port Townsend ferry (Whidbey Island connection).
The Olympic Peninsula is not one trip. It is three landscapes, two nations' territories, and a spectrum of weather that ranges from alpine snow to coastal fog to high-desert lavender fields, all within a single loop of road. Seven days is enough to touch all of it — but you will leave with a list of the days you wanted to add. That's the sign of a trip that worked.
Explore the full Olympic Peninsula guide or plan your own trip.