{"id":3915,"date":"2024-09-12T19:42:03","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T23:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/?p=3915"},"modified":"2026-01-07T15:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:00:10","slug":"olympic-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/olympic-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Olympic National Park had not been part of the earlier versions of our itinerary, it was a last-minute add forced by the Jasper wildfires.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serendipitous though since it\u2019s unlikely that we would have visited the park otherwise \u2013 just so many other places to visit, so little time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the mixed bag of crowds and amazing scenery of Banff, Olympic NP was far more \u2018tame\u2019 \u2013 fewer people – yet with scenery which rivaled some of Banff\u2019s best.   Unfortunately, we were both still battling lingering COVID effects when we arrived, so our energy levels were a bit down \u2013 even so, we were able to pack in adventures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After leaving Banff, we returned to Calgary for a short flight to Victoria, British Columbia.  Arriving, we boarded a ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles, Washington which was our home for a few days.   Situated right on the water, and seemingly the only larger town, small city on \u201cthe peninsula\u201d, Port Angeles is a mix of art galleries and coffee shops, interspersed with a slightly tired look of closed store fronts and dollar-stores.   Perhaps a typical slice of America struggling to stay afloat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For our first full-day “on the peninsula”, we chose to hike Maiden Peak (alltrails.com<\/a>), via the Obstruction Point\/Deer Park trail.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standing at 6,430ft, Maiden Peak wasn\u2019t particularly high, but it was enough of a challenge from its starting elevation of 4,800ft.   It was a great choice, offering varied conditions, from a woods-walk to alpine meadow, and epic vistas at the summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting to the trailhead was a bit of a challenge – the road to get there was a bit sketchy – a twisty\/turny thing, somewhat reminiscent of some slope-hugging roads in Yosemite. There were a few instances where the road wasn’t much wider than a single car – certainly tickling my vertigo (and not in such nice ways!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the views speak for themselves!<\/p>\n\n\n

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And the weather certainly made it a special day out. <\/p>\n\n\n

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At the summit, the views were spectacular – enabling us to see across to Canada!<\/p>\n\n\n

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View across the water (Salish Sea) to Victoria, BC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Because our energy levels were low – needing a bit of recovery from our Maiden Peak hike – for our second day in Port Angeles, we decided on a road trip to the Hoh rainforest and a side visit to Rialto beach on the western coast of the peninsula.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it was quite a bit of driving, we got a real feel for the overall remoteness of the peninsula and a glimpse at a very different ocean than what we\u2019re accustomed to seeing on Cape Cod.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Yup, a rain forest with big trees!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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The rain forest was really only a short walk (1.5mi) – a walk in the woods? Leaving there, we headed over to Rialto beach – on the pacific coast. Very windy, it wasn’t the sort of beach we’re accustomed to (towels and swimming and all) – beautiful, but in a different sort of way.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Our final day in Port Angeles, we found a local bike shop which rented eBikes \u2013 the torque-assist variety.  We enjoyed a 20-mile strip along a portion of the Olympic Discovery Trail \u2013 a long-distance bike path through the park.   A really nice way to spend some outdoor time!<\/p>\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Olympic National Park had not been part of the earlier versions of our itinerary, it was a last-minute add forced by the Jasper wildfires.   Serendipitous though since it\u2019s unlikely that we would have visited the park otherwise \u2013 just so many other places to visit, so little time! After the mixed bag of crowds and amazing scenery of Banff, Olympic NP was far more \u2018tame\u2019 \u2013 fewer people – yet with scenery which rivaled some of Banff\u2019s best.   Unfortunately, weRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"category-hiking.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cdnrockies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3915"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5240,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3915\/revisions\/5240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}