Day 1 - Sunday 7/29/2018 - Travel to Port Angeles and Hike Staircase Rapids Along the Way
Another beautiful morning at Crystal Chalets! Brian, Scott (my brother), and myself all woke well before the 6:20 AM alarm, but none of us wanted to move until 6:30 or so. After spending four days exploring parts of Mount Rainier National Park, we packed up and were on the road around 7:30 AM. Our route to Olympic NP was WA-410 to US-101, this was the more scenic route and would take about 5 hours without stopping. We cut off of US-101 to WA-119 and drove up to the Staircase Rapids entrance of Olympic National Park and did a small 4 mile hike loop up to Staircase Rapids. We didn’t realize the drive up to that south entrance would take us on gravel roads, but it was a pretty drive along a man made lake. Since it was a hot and sunny Sunday the lake was crowded as were the roads around it. Now that we made it the the trailhead it was time to go for a walk. This easy hike was pretty in some old growth forest and even though the water was low and there were many Rapids.
Once we were finished with the hike we got back on the US-101 drove back out to the main road. The route in on this road was heavily backed up with people trying to get to the lake. We passed miles and miles of cars as we rollout out, a few even stopped us wondering if we know what the hold up was. Back on the main road, we stopped at Hama Hama Oyster Saloon for a late lunch based on the recommendation from my Dad's Cousin. This was a great lunch spot and the seafood was good! After we finished up our oysters and clams, we continued the drive up the peninsula and arrived at Port Angeles at about 3:15 PM. Since we could not check in to Olympic Lodge until 4 we decided to go to the Olympic NP visitor center in Port Angeles and drove around town a bit until we could checkin.
After we rested for a little while, we then decided to go eat at Down Rigger’s which was down town on the water. Great views and decent food. I had fried razor neck clams there were pretty tasty. We all decided that walking around the water would be nice even though it was cold due to the evening breeze. It doesn’t look like this place gets too warm even during hot spells like north west Washington was having. We got back to the hotel at about 7:40PM and chilled until 10 PM or so before going to sleep.
Staircase Rapids Loop - 4 Mile Loop; 150 ft elevation gain
Safe Travels,
B&E
After we rested for a little while, we then decided to go eat at Down Rigger’s which was down town on the water. Great views and decent food. I had fried razor neck clams there were pretty tasty. We all decided that walking around the water would be nice even though it was cold due to the evening breeze. It doesn’t look like this place gets too warm even during hot spells like north west Washington was having. We got back to the hotel at about 7:40PM and chilled until 10 PM or so before going to sleep.
Staircase Rapids Loop - 4 Mile Loop; 150 ft elevation gain
Safe Travels,
B&E