Olympic Peninsula

Since Mia will be leaving for a Summer contract position with the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest in April, we decided to take a mini-vacation during mid-winter break.  We rented an airbnb in Port Angeles, WA which is situated along the Strait of Juan de Fuca on the northern part of the Olympic Peninsula.

At this time of the year, we knew that this would be a risky vacation regarding weather conditions near one of the largest temperate rainforests in the entire United States, and we grew increasingly concerned when we received about 10 inches of snow at our house the day before we left!  While the roads were still pretty slushy the following day, we were able to make the drive without incident.  Temperatures had warmed up and the snow quickly turned to rain.  That made the first couple of days of our vacation soggy, but we remained relatively dry the last couple of days.

Because the Olympic Peninsula is huge, we spent the entire time on the Northern part of the peninsula, visiting the western, central, and eastern sections on separate days.

Alexander's Castle overlooking Puget Sound at Fort Worden Historical State Park 

Activities

While our trip was fairly short (4 days) and the weather not entirely encouraging, we managed to pack in as much site-seeing as possible, visiting Olympic National Park, 5 state parks, hiking 16 miles, and driving approximately 500 miles.

Activity	Hike Distance (miles)	Hike Elev. Gain (ft)
Sequim Bay SP	--	--
Olympic Game Park	--	--
Third Beach	3.0	412
Rialto Beach	--	--
Spruce Railroad Trail / Devil's Punchbowl	3.3	226
Salt Creek Receration Area	--	--
Marymere Falls / Barne's Point	3.0	207
Madison Creek Falls	0.2	26
Anderson Lake State Park	1.0	106
Fort Flagler State Park	3.3	444
Mystery Bay State Park	--	--
Fort Worden State Park	2.0	326
TOTALS	15.8	1743

Activities with no milage or elevation gain listed were stops that required no hiking

Map

The following is a map of our hikes and a GPX file with all of these hikes.  The color-coding of hikes follows:

• Green: Monday (Western peninsula)
• Blue: Tuesday (Central peninsula)
• Red: Wednesday (Eastern peninsula)

Profile

The following is an elevation profile of the hikes:

Highlights

The Olympic Peninsula is very big.  While we remained only in the Northern part of the peninsula which faces the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we still managed to drive about 450 miles on the peninsula.  Since the weather was bad on Sunday as we drove onto the peninsula, we decided to visit the Olympic Game Farm, a drive-through park featuring lots of animals, such as yaks, llamas, bison, and deer.  For the remaining three days, we explored three very different areas of the peninsula, including the rugged coastline, the Cascade Lake area, and early 20th century military forts built to protect the Puget Sound area from naval and air invasion on the eastern side of the peninsula.  

We also enjoyed our airbnb as well.  It gave us a comfortable place to dry off and warm up after being out in the cool February weather.  We also enjoyed playing games, completing a jigsaw puzzle, and watching Netflix (we don't subscribe to the service at home, because we're not big TV watchers.)

Favorites

Here's what each family member said was their favorite part of the trip:

Raymond:	Fort Worden / Port Townsend	Compact 20th century military fort with well-preserved buildings and a picturesque town containing charming homes
Mia:	Olympic Game Farm	Driving through an animal park with the windows down and a loaf of bread to feed all of the eager customers. She claimed it was the "Best day of my life!"
Suzanne:	Spruce Railroad Trail	A paved, gently graded trail that hugs Olympic National Park's Cascade Lake along with a hike to the Devil's Punchbowl
Mike:	Fort Flagler	Sprawling 20th century military site on Marrowstone Island overlooking Port Townsend, Whidbey Island, and other Puget Sound settings along with views of the Cascade mountains as well.

Photos & Videos

• Mike's pictures.  
• Mia's pictures of the Olympic Game Farm.
• Mike's GoPro videos