Olympic National Park with Kids: The Ultimate Itinerary
Thinking about visiting olympic national park with kids? We think you definitely should. In fact, we think its the most child friendly national park! We’ll share our dream itinerary and what makes this national park stand out as the ultimate kid-friendly destination.
What make olympic national park so kid friendly?
Olympic National Park was made for tiny travelers! Have you ever felt exhausted at the end of a day of hiking? You know who doesn’t feel exhausted? A toddler who has been in a hiking pack the whole time. However, its difficult to let toddlers walk on their own when you are on trails with steep drop offs. Enter Olympic National Park. So many of the hiking trails are flat and through Olympic Forest so you can safely allow young children to hike on their own.
How many days do i need in Olympic National Park with kids?
I’m always a fan of slow travel with taking children. Everyone is happier if they aren’t overly exhausted. I’d recommend a minimum of six days. You won’t see everything Olympic National Park has to offer but you can cover most of the must-see sites in that amount of time.
Where should i stay in olympic national park?
I’d recommend dividing up your time between Port Angeles (4 nights) and La Push (3 nights). You’ll start in Port Angeles, which is the perfect jumping off point for exploring Hurricane Ridge, going whale watching, biking the Olympic Adventure Trail, and heading over to Canada. The second half of your trip will take you to the Washington coast and Hoh Rainforest. You’ll see most people recommend Forks but I highly recommend you stay in La Push instead. Quileute Lodge is situated right on First Beach and gives you the chance to enjoy each sunset on the beach before you call it a night.
Day 1: Arrive in Port Angeles
If you aren’t within driving distance than I recommend flying into Seattle in the morning and heading straight to Port Angeles. You can stock up on groceries and then head to Welly’s Real Fruit Ice Cream. Take your ice cream and walk along the sound. I’ll be honest, Port Angeles isn’t a charming coastal town. However, we loved walking around the water to kick off our vacation before settling into our rental home.
Day 2: Hiking & Biking
First thing in the morning head to Hurricane Ridge. Due to a fire at the visitors center, the National Park Service is limiting visitors to Hurricane Ridge. You can check out their Twitter account for daily updates on when they’ve reached capacity. We checked the few days before we went and decided we needed to be there by 8am. Luckily, most locations in Port Angeles are 10-15 minutes away from the entrance gate so you don’t have to get up too early!
We were able to tackle three hikes while we were at Hurricane Ridge. And all before noon! From the visitors center you’ll hike the Cirque Rim trail and High Ridge trail. Combining these loops is just over a mile and very easy. After warming up your legs, you should head to Hurricane Hill. This three-mile round trip hike is moderate and the beginning of the hike is a pretty steady incline. While its not the easiest hike, the views are totally worth it! Just make sure you bring your bug spray. The mosquitos on Hurricane Hill weren’t messing around.
This is the only day when hiking with toddlers is more of a challenge. You’ll want to make sure you have a hiking pack for young children.
In the afternoon, rent bikes from Discover E-Bikes and head out on the Olympic Adventure Trail. Just be sure to make your reservation early because they only have one kids trailer.
Day 3: Whale Spotting and Searching for dinosaurs
In the morning head out with the Puget Sound Express to search for whales. Their boat is set up perfectly for families. There is an enclosed interior with tables where you can sit and eat their famous Blueberry Buckle while whale spotting. I loved having a large boat and indoor space in case our toddler didn’t end up loving being on a boat. And thank goodness I made that choice because he didn’t like being outside on the boat!
In the afternoon, head to the Olympic National Park visitors center for some pictures with the park sign and a quick and easy hike on the Peabody Creek Trailhead. We did the short loop from the visitors center and honestly it was one of the most impressive hikes we did in Olympic National Park. It really felt like any minute a dinosaur was going to poke its head out from behind a fern. You felt completely transported to another time. As an added bonus, I don’t think that area is very popular and we didn’t see any other hikers on the trail.
Day 4: Border Hopping!
Did you know that you can get to Victoria, Canada in under two-hours from Olympic National Park? Our toddler had never been to Canada and I’m never going to pass up a chance to get someone in our family a passport stamp! The ferry is an hour and a half and a truly beautiful trip. I recommend taking the earliest ferry out and bringing your car with you. You’ll need to get there very early but I promise it’s worth it!
Once you’ve arrived treat yourself to a delicious coffee and pastries from Union Pacific Coffee before heading out of town to Butchart Gardens. I was on the fence about adding this to our itinerary and can whole-heartedly say it is completely worth it! I can see why it is touted as one of the most beautiful botanical gardens in the world.
You’ll want to spend 2-3 hours strolling through the gardens before heading back into town. Once you are back in Victoria we prioritized getting fish and chips, visiting Fan Tan alley, and seeing the colorful house boats of Fisherman’s Wharf. Victoria was beautiful, such a clean and charming city. We will definitely be back when we have more time!
Day 5: Hiking en Route to the beach
You are in luck because Olympic National Park offers hikes with stunning views even when you are just commuting to your next home base.
From Port Angeles head west towards the Lake Crescent area. We were blown away by how crystal clear the water is here as well as how empty the lake was. We only saw one boater the entire day! Make sure you bring your swimsuits. Even though the water was cold, that didn’t stop a few brave children!
I recommend you start your day at Lake Crescent by completing the Marymere Falls hike. This 1.7-mile loop is relatively easy with minimal elevation gain. It’s another extremely toddler friendly hike. Ours was able to complete this entirely on his own.
Once you’ve finished hiking, and maybe swimming, head to the other side of the lake for the Spruce Railroad Trail. I was initially charmed by the little bridge over the Devil’s Punchbowl here but the real stunner ended up being the tunnel the trail goes through. The tunnel is quite long and you will hit a point where you are entirely in the dark. My kids LOVED IT! We actually went through a total of 6 times. The Spruce Railroad Trail is a part of the Olympic Adventure Trail and is excellent for biking or pushing a stroller, making it the ultimate in family friendly hiking. It is also a great spot to take a dip in Lake Crescent.
From here it is a short hour drive to La Push and the Washington coast.
Day 6: Beach bunnies!
If you are heading to Olympic National Park with kids then you have to include a full day at the beach. The hardest part will be deciding which beach(es) to spend the day at. My recommendation is to split your time between two very different beaches so you can see the variety the Washington coast has to offer.
You want to time your day based on the tides. I recommend spending low tide at Rialto beach and the Hole-In-The-Wall. The Hole-In-The-Wall is a dramatic rock formation you can hike to from the parking lot. The hike is just under 2-miles and I’ll be honest, it is pretty challenging, especially if you are in a hurry. So make sure you give yourself enough time to get out to the Hole-in-the-Wall without missing low tide or having to worry. You want to aim for getting to the rock formation an hour before low tide so you can spend plenty of time climbing around and tide-pooling.
The other beach you don’t want to miss is Kalaloch and the Tree of Life. This gorgeous tree’s roots span two cliffs. The beach is also a beautiful sandy beach, in contrast to Rialto’s rocky shoreline, which will provide for hours of entertainment for little children.
Take my recommendation and stay at Quileute Oceanside Resort and you can add in a third beach today, ironically called first beach. It’s a lovely place to enjoy sunset.
Day 7: Trekking in a rainforest
You’re going to finish your trip to the Olympic National Park with a visit to the Hoh Rainforest. Be warned, during peak season this is a very popular destination with very limited parking. Make sure to arrive before 8am on weekends and holidays. We arrived at 9:15am and waited for FOUR HOURS to be let into the national park. Needless to say that was quite the disappointing start to our day!
I’d recommend doing the two most popular hikes first, Hall of Moses (0.8 miles) and the Spruce Nature Trail (1.2 miles). Then stray off the beaten path a bit and start down the Hoh River Trail. At just over 17 miles, the goal is not to complete the Hoh River Trail rather just to get away from the crowds and enjoy the splendor that is the Hoh Rainforest. This is another one of those hikes where it feels like a dinosaur or fairy could burst out from behind a fern at any moment.
Day 8: head home! or take a bonus day
Depending on where home is you may be driving back to Seattle to fly home. If you are, I highly recommend you leave early and take an afternoon to enjoy Seattle before flying out the next morning. We did just that and spent the afternoon strolling around town and visiting the Chihuly Gardens and Glass exhibit. Chihuly happens to be my favorite artist and it was spectacular to see so much of his work in one space. Also fun would be the Space Needle, just be prepared for a wait. We decided we weren’t up for anymore waiting after the Hoh Rainforest so we are saving it for next time.
I hope I’ve convinced you that Olympic National park with kids is an ideal vacation! i know you’ll love it as much as we did.
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