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3 Days in Olympic National Park

If you don’t have a full week, 3 days is the perfect amount of time to spend in Olympic National Park. This past summer, I went and explored the park with my sisters, and we found 3 days to be the perfect amount of time. Olympic spans nearly 1 million acres and features three distinct ecosystems: glaciated mountains, ancient temperate rainforests, and 73 miles of wild Pacific coastline. It’s home to the largest temperate rainforest in the lower 48, has over 60 named glaciers, and is renowned for its incredible biodiversity, including endemic species found nowhere else. Olympic undoubtedly is one of the most incredible national parks we have.

I loved every second of my trip, and am planning a return one with Grant so we can experience it together!

Day 1 – Sol Duc Falls, Marymere Falls, Crescent Lake

I’d recommend starting day one with a few hikes! Sol Duc Falls is famous and for good reason – it’s a short, easy hike with a beautiful waterfall at the end! Sol Duc is an easy 1.8-mile hike. We recommend trekking poles and sturdy shoes, as there are some steeper parts. The trail also gets slippery when wet, so watch your step! Marymere Falls is another 1.8-mile hike, and it’s pretty easy! The hardest part is the last loop directly at the 90-foot waterfall. The trail is tight and goes in a one-way loop to make it easy! Finish your day with lunch or dinner at Crescent Lake, hiking around the Devil’s Punchbowl, and watching sunset from Hurricane Ridge.

Day 2 – Hoh Rainforest, Beaches, Forks

I’d recommend starting day two of your three-day trip to Olympic National Park by heading to the Hoh Rainforest early. This is part of the national park, so you will need your pass to get in, as well as a daily parking permit. This parking lot fills up extremely fast, so make sure you get here early. We arrived at 7 am and were about the fifteenth car in the lot. By nine am, the lot was full, and there was a long line to get in! We hiked the Hall of Mosses (which I LOVED!) and the Spruce and Hoh Trails.

After the Hoh Rainforest, check out Kalaloch and Ruby Beach. The Tree of Life is at Kalaloch, and we definitely recommend checking that out before it sinks. It’s an important landmark, and won’t be there much longer. Kalaloch is also famous for finding sand dollars! Just keep your eyes peeled – once we found one, we found so many more! At Ruby Beach, make sure you wear Chacos, Tevas, or shoes that you can slip off easily so you can access all the parts of the beach. You have to cross some water if you want to keep walking the whole thing.

We also recommend exploring Forks on this day! If you’re a huge Twilight fan, you can check out the Swan House and the multiple Twilight Museums that the town offers. We recommend visiting the La Push Beaches or Rialto Beach, and hiking Hole-in-the-Wall if it aligns with the tides. Grab a bite to eat in Forks and enjoy the sunset at one of the beaches!

Day 3 – Shi Shi Beach, Cape Flattery, Neah Bay

Spend your last day driving up to and hiking Shi Shi Beach! Shi Shi is on a Native American Reserve, so a special permit is required to hike there. It is called the Makah Recreation Pass and is $20. You can find more information about the permit and the Shi Shi Beach hike HERE. You can also get the recreation pass through recreation.gov in advance!

Shi Shi is a long hike! It’s technically 8 miles long, but we hiked 10 miles total. The first 2 miles of the hike are through the undergrowth and forest before you hit the beach. The two miles in the woods were not bad at the beginning, but the trail became very muddy and hard to navigate. Forewarning: wear good shoes you don’t mind getting muddy, because if you are hiking anytime after it rains, the trail will be a mess. My sister and I all had hiking poles, and I highly recommend you using some! The beach itself is four miles from the trail. Two miles to the Point of Arches, and two miles back to the forest. The beach itself is flat and super easy to hike. Point of Arches is incredible, and I recommend taking the time to look through all the tide pools! We saw some incredible sea anemones and starfish! It was the best scavenger hunt looking for them! For this part of the trail, we all changed out of our hiking boots and put on Chacos so we could explore in the water.

This is a long hike and will take most of the day, so we recommend finishing out this day with sunset at Cape Flattery. If you have time after your hike, swing through Neah Bay for a meal, or to spend time by the water, or walk through some of the museums there.

Cape Flattery is a short 1.5-mile round-trip hike to the point. Cape Flattery is the northwesternmost point of the contiguous US. The trail is 90% boardwalk with steps, making it easy to walk and navigate. We saw whales breaching while watching the sunset here, so make sure to bring a long lens and keep an eye out for more ocean wildlife!

I hope this 3-day blog about Olympic National Park helps you plan your trip here! I loved exploring this national park, and hope you do too! If we had had an extra day or two, we would’ve checked out a few more hikes and spread out our days. But overall, three days here were great!