Backpacking the Olympic Peninsula

Labor Day weekend 2007, we hiked 22 of the most rugged, most beautiful miles of the Washington coastline—the Olympic Peninsula from Ozette Lake to Shi Shi Beach. After quite a bit of research and planning, I settled on a route that would be challenging, but enjoyable. The plan was to start hiking early each day, arriving at low tide points in time to hike with ease, and end at our campsite in time for lunch so we'd have the whole rest of the day to relax and explore.
We left Hood River bright and early on Friday morning, with our first stop being the ranger station way at the top of Washington, in Port Angeles. We needed to pick up our camping permits and bear-proof canisters. The raccoons are rampant on the trail and will even eat a hole in your tent to get a granola bar. Before the sun comes up, you can look into the bushes at your campsite and see many sets of little eyes looking back at you.

Almost ready to hit the trail after a night spent camping at Ozette Lake.

Gerry gives it up for the beach.

The first 3 miles of trail are hiked on super-slippery wooden boardwalks. This area is so rainy that you'd be knee-deep in mud without them. The woods here are LUSH and open up to the beautiful Pacific.

Low tide = fun tidal pools to explore.

Our oceanfront view.

We arrived at Cape Alava around noon and had prime choice of camping spots. After settling in, we went exploring and spend some time soaking it all in with some ice-cold Vitamin R. My pack was heavy, but not TOO heavy to leave out a few beerskis.

The sun says goodnight to the Pacific coast.

A few small friends were lounging in the grass right off the sand.

Vicki Lee, Gerry, Me & Aaron enjoying the ocean.

We perched ourselves on top of a BIG rock and enjoyed the last of the sun.

Very cool spot!

One of the reasons backpacking is so great is that you can get to places that people would pay a LOT of money to spend time, but won't put the effort in to get there on their own two feet. With our house, bed and food strapped to our back, we enjoyed some of the most beautiful coastline in the world and had it mostly all to ourselves. :)


in the distance, near the top-right part of the above photo, you can see the speck of Vicki making her way down the side of an overland crossing. There are a bunch of places on the trail that you have to hit at low tide to cross and some that have no option but to climb straight up the face of the rock face, assited by a rope for pulling yourself up. Sketch for the inexperienced or weary.

We hit our low-tide points as planned. Nice work!

Vicki making her way through the giant rocks.

One last break before our last push to Shi Shi Beach.

Pictured above, Point of the Arches is the last low-tide crossing before you reach Shi Shi. We had beautiful weather right until we crossed through the rising tide waters to the beach. We took shelter from the rain and had to decide to put up our tents and stay the rest of the day and night in the rain, or hike the last 5.5 miles to the car and spend our last night at a hotel. We opted for the latter and hiked the last, muddy, heavy 5.5 miles. It's obvious why this is one of the top trails in the U.S. Just Amazing. :)