We recently did a road trip up the Oregon and Washington coast bringing us to this beautiful Olympic National Park. We just spent one day here and definitely could have spent more! These are just a few of the things we spent our day doing. A few things to be aware of before you go is the sites are going to be much longer of a drive in between than you realize. Make sure to consider this when planning out your day. We have a Sprinter Van converted into a camper so when we are on our road trips we frequently participate in dispersed camping. We spent the night in a rainforest right in the Olympic National Forest right before the southern entry of the park. The park is divided into three distinct ecosystems. These include the glaciated mountains, rugged Pacific Coast line, and multiple temperate rainforests. There is SO much variety you will be amazed at every turn!

As we mentioned above there are three distinct ecosystems. One of them being the temperate rainforests. The temperate rainforest vs a tropical rainforest is temperate rainforests rarely go below freezing and above 80 degrees Fahrenheit. They typically stay around the same temperature all year long.  There are a total of four different rainforests you can visit throughout the park. We HIGHLY recommend visiting the Quinault Rain Forest. It is home to world’s largest Sitka spruce tree and many waterfalls. The reason we suggest this is this rainforest is way less popular among tourists, especially compared to the Hoh rainforest. There are many different hikes throughout the rainforest. We opted for a short 1 mile flat loop that took us through the rainforest and creek. If you do plan to go to the Hoh rainforest make sure you arrive early as the line becomes VERY long at the entry point. 

There are many different beaches to choose from in Olympic National Park. We opted for Ruby Beach. The sand is known to sometimes have a reddish tint. The beach is filled with rocks, driftwood, tidepools, and beautiful scenery. There were also restrooms located in the parking lot and would be a great place to bring a picnic. It is a little bit of a hike down to the beach but totally worth it! 

There are so many waterfalls located in Olympic National Park. If you are anything like us we are still mystified by waterfalls no matter how many we have seen. We took the 1.7 mile out and back hike throughout the lush forest, creek, bridges, and stairs to be greeted by the 90 foot beautiful waterfall. Besides the waterfall being a perfect photo op you will be distracted by all the beauty on the way to the falls that would make for some pretty artistic pictures. 

At 3.4 out and back trail this was the longest hike we completed throughout our day. We started around 4pm and finished in a little over an hour. Unfortunately we were greeted with lots of fog, which isn't uncommon. Although once we got the the top where if you are lucky and there is no fog you are able to see parts of Canada, islands, and other mountain peaks. Even though we had fog present we were still greeted with BREATHTAKING views up the trail and it was oh so worth it. It does get extremely chilly even in the midst of summer so be prepared to dress warm!

What is your favorite place in Olympic National Park?!