Olympic National Park, Washington: USA 2017

December 18, 2017 Motorhome Planet

We got the Black Ball Line ferry from Victoria, Canada, to Port Angeles, USA. This was an old sturdy boat, and extremely busy due to it being a bank holiday weekend and the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival (lots of crabs dotted around!). Two vehicles actually got turned away and cars were packed onto the ferry in a way we’ve never seen before.

Sailing from Victoria, Canada, to Port Angeles, USA. — Sailing from Victoria, Canada, to Port Angeles, USA on the Black Bull Line ferry.

A smooth comfortable sailing, and a swift exit through US customs in Port Angeles meant we were off into Olympic National Park and up to Hurricane Ridge in no time.

We lost the sunshine and were greeted with showers and low cloud but that didn’t stop us enjoying a few of the lower walks from the Hurricane Ridge visitor center. The High Ridge Trail had fantastic views, then onto Sunrise Point and around the Cirque Rim Trail and Hurricane Hill.

Olympic National Park, Washington, USA — View from Hurricane Ridge Visitor Centre, Olympic National Park.

From here we headed back down and onto the 1915 historic Lake Crescent Lodge on the shores of Lake Crescent – stunning and worth a stop.

Lake Crescent, Olympic National Park, Washington, USA — View from Lake Crescent Lodge, Lake Crescent, Olympic National Park.

We then headed to Forks, where Stephenie Meyer based her Twilight saga novels and round to Lake Quinault Lodge and the rainforests. This grand and rustic lodge was built in 1926 and again is worth a short wander around to take in it’s impressive construction and surroundings.

Quinault Lodge, Olympic National Park, Washington, USA — Quinault Lodge, Olympic National Park.

We decided to do the short, 0.3 mile, walk to the World’s largest Sitka Spruce tree, estimated to be around 1000 years old and 58’11” in circumference – it was big!

Surrounded by rainforest this was a damp grey place to hang around, thankfully being so late on in the season, insects and flies were not an issue!

On leaving the national park we started to make our way south towards Oregon.