I had dreamed of visiting the PNW for years and was finally able to take a trip to Washington in the fall of 2020. And let me tell you now, IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT.
Our trip took place in early October 2020 for our 3rd wedding anniversary. We went during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, so things were a bit different than usual. But we were still able to thoroughly enjoy every bit of our trip! We just took extra precautions and wore a mask when we were within 6 feet of others or indoors.
We were able to visit the “Evergreen State” for 7 days. I feel like we were able to cover a lot of ground and we definitely could have fit more activities into our days, but we chose to relax a bit too. Overall, I would say one week is plenty of time to fall in love with the PNW!
If you know me, or have been following me for a while, you know I LOVE the National Parks and hiking! So of course, these were our priorities when planning this trip. Washington is home to 3 beautiful National Parks- Olympic, Mt. Rainier & North Cascades. Because the parks are so spread out, we decided to make the most out of our week and limit our time to just Olympic and Mt. Rainier National Parks. Don’t worry, North Cascades. We’re coming back for you!
I’m going to share our itinerary with you below, so that if you’re considering a trip to Washington state and love the outdoors and hiking, you can use it to help plan your own trip! I’ll share where we stayed, where we ate, which hikes we did, and all the other small details. And of course there will be plenty of pictures from our time there! So keep on reading!
DAY 1 – TUESDAY:
TRAVEL DAY
Our first day was our travel day, so we didn’t plan anything fun. We flew into Seattle from New Orleans and picked up our rental car. We chose a Jeep and have zero regrets! This was one of the highlights of the trip – driving through the mountains and forests in a beautiful Jeep! It definitely added to the adventure.
After picking up the Jeep we drove the 2.5 hours to our adorable Airbnb in Port Angeles. It was the PERFECT home base for visiting Olympic National Park! We had easy access to all of the attractions/hikes on our bucket-list.
DAY 2 – WEDNESDAY:
RIALTO BEACH | HOH RAINFOREST
We didn’t waste any time jumping into our first full day here. We were so excited to get out and explore so we set our alarms for the crack of dawn and set out on our first Washington adventure!
First, we headed to Rialto Beach so that we could hike to Hole in the Wall. I was looking forward to this hike so much and I’m definitely glad we made it our first stop! It was about a 1.5 hour drive from Port Angeles.
The hike was fairly easy, just requiring a little bit of rock scrambling at the Hole in the Wall, but totally worth it! It’s still one of my favorite hikes from the whole trip! It was so unique!
After getting back to the trailhead, we headed to the Hoh Rainforest next. This was about a 1 hour 15 minute drive from Rialto Beach. We drove through the town of Forks, so all of you Twilight fans can be on the lookout for Edward and Jacob!
Once arriving at the Hoh Rainforest we purchased our park passes (we got the annual pass which was only $20 more than paying for both park entry fees and it’s good for all parks for 12 months).
We decided to do the Hall of Mosses Trail and it was stunning! I will note, I think the experience would have been a little better on a foggy or rainy day. We didn’t get to experience the true “rainforest” vibe, but it was beautiful none the less! After doing the Hall of Mosses Trail, we hiked the Spruce Trail. Both trails were very easy and family friendly.
After exploring the Hoh Rainforest and having our lunch that we had packed, we headed back to Port Angeles to grab an early dinner and spent the evening relaxing at the Airbnb.
Speaking of dinner, we absolutely LOVED Country Aire Natural Foods Market and it’s where we ate and shopped during our stay in Port Angeles. We are plant based/vegan and they made it VERY easy to stick to our lifestyle while in town. Their hot veggie sandwich was pure deliciousness! We also stocked up on some snacks for our big hike the following day.
DAY 3 – THURSDAY:
MOUNT STORM KING
This was by far the highlight of our whole trip and deserves a blog post of it’s own! I look back on this hike and have nothing but smiles! It was truly amazing and I would recommend this trail to anyone who is up for a challenge and breathtaking views. The trail is STEEP, especially towards the top, but it’s so worth it! But just be warned- I’m not kidding when I say it’s steep (2,106 feet of elevation gain to be exact).
We arrived at the trailhead before the sun was up and started our hike with a little help from our headlamps. We had the whole trail to ourselves and didn’t come across any other hikers until we were half way back to the trailhead on the way down.
*Warning: This trail can be very dangerous so take precaution when hiking past the “End of Maintained Trail” sign! Ropes have been installed to assist in the steep climb to the top, but it’s extremely slick and the drop offs are pretty scary!
Once you make it past the scary part, you are welcomed with the most amazing view of Lake Crescent and the neighboring mountains. We were in awe when we got to the top and saw the views that were waiting for us. It made the struggle 100x’s worth it!
The Storm King Trail is also connected to the Marymere Falls Trail, so we added on a little bit of extra hiking to see the falls. It was so pretty and definitely gave off some major PNW vibes!
After quite an exhausting hike, we headed back to Country Aire for another hot veggie sandwich. Yes, they’re that good!
Next, we headed to the Port Angeles Olympic NP visitors center to grab our stamps for our National Parks Passport. Because of Covid they were handing out stamped stickers instead of having visitors stamp their books themselves.
Madison Creek Falls was our last stop of the day. It is only about a 15 minute drive from the visitors center and a super short, flat hike to the falls.
To prepare for yet another sunrise hike the next morning, we had another relaxing, early night.
DAY 4 – FRIDAY:
PORT ANGELES TO ASHFORD
Once again, we woke up at the crack of dawn to catch the sunrise at Sunrise Point at Hurricane Ridge. We wanted to do the Hurricane Ridge hike, but my knee was not feeling so hot after hiking Storm King the day before so I wanted to take it easy. It was only a short (but steep) hike to the lookout area and the views from there were amazing! We got to see sun come up from behind the mountain peaks and the sky lit up with the most beautiful colors!
It was FREEZING up here, so we spent some time taking sunrise pictures then headed back down to the warmth of the Jeep. Then we said goodbye to the house that was our home for the last 3 nights and headed on to Ashford for the remainder of our trip.
On the way out of town, we stopped in Sequim at Sunshine Lavender Farm and picked up a couple of goodies from the gift shop. They literally had anything you could think of made with lavender – hand sanitizer, lotions, bath salts, skin care, bbq sauce, seasonings – you know, the usual lavender things..
The drive from Port Angeles to Ashford was filled with incredible views! The fall foliage was so bright and colorful! We drove along the Hood Canal which offered beautiful views for miles. And as we got closer, we could see Mt. Rainier peeking out in the distance. She will definitely stop you in your tracks!
We checked into our Airbnb and my heart was SO happy. A tiny cabin in the woods with a hammock, swing, and hot tub. Could it get any better? Little did I know, this Airbnb was about to become my all time favorite!
We were exhausted after waking up early so many days in a row and from all of the hiking and driving, but we decided to still go to Mt. Rainier National Park since it was right up the road from Ashford. I’m SO glad we did because the next couple of days were going to be so much colder and rainier. We checked out the Longmire area and drove up to Paradise but didn’t stay long because we were tired and hungry. We did get a few shots of Mt. Rainier though, even though she wasn’t showing her peak that day.
DAY 5 – SATURDAY
MT. RAINIER NATIONAL PARK
The forecast showed nothing but rain for the weekend and snow/sleet at Paradise (Paradise is at a much higher elevation than the rest of the park). So this means we got to sleep in a little later this day since we knew we wouldn’t be doing much hiking.
Late morning we drove up to Paradise and were welcomed with really, really cold rain and snow with a lot of wind. So different than the Paradise we saw the previous day! The weather was too nasty to do any hiking here so we decided to drive the Steven’s Canyon Road to do some sight seeing. It was such a pretty drive! We drove along Steven’s Canyon, saw several waterfalls along the main road, and found a cool little trail at Box Canyon. Luckily the rain had eased up just in time for us to do this short hike! It was so different than anything we had seen so far, I can only imagine how pretty it would be on a clear day! The park has so many great pull-offs/look outs with amazing views, so always be prepared to stop and marvel!
After we saw all of the sights along Steven’s Canyon Road, we headed to the town of Elbe for lunch. Elbe is a tiny town about 15 minutes outside of Ashford, and they have a few more options for food than Ashford does. Again, we are plant based/vegan so it’s not always easy finding restaurants we can eat at unless we just want a plain salad.
We chose to eat at Mt. Rainier Railroad Dining Co. mainly because you get to dine inside an actual train car. And also because they serve veggie burgers and portobello mushroom burgers. (It may not have been fully vegan, but you know, we’re on vacation!) It was such a cool little restaurant and they had a pretty big selection of foods to order from. Basically your traditional American cuisine.
We spent the rest of our rainy evening relaxing inside near the electric fire place at the cabin and spent some time in the hot tub too. That’s my kind of night!
DAY 6 – SUNDAY:
SKYLINE TRAIL
We had planned to do the Skyline Trial at Paradise in Mt. Rainier. Fernando’s brother, who lives in Everett, WA, even drove in to hike with us. We knew the weather had worsened overnight but had no clue just how bad it was up at Paradise! We drove into Mt. Rainier NP and were told by a ranger at the gate that the road to Paradise past Longmire was closed due to snow conditions and plowing. So we decided to hang out in Longmire for a couple of hours until the gate was open.
We got up to Paradise and it was like a winter wonderland! Snow EVERYWHERE! And it was still coming down- HARD! I was definitely not prepared for a hike in these conditions, but we went anyway. Boy, did I regret that! I was miserable the entire time and definitely wish I would have turned around as soon as it became uncomfortable.
Conditions only worsened the further along the trail we hiked. At one point the snow was knee deep, and I had an inch of snow inside my boots. NOT a pleasant feeling at all! We eventually turned around and headed down and I have never been SO happy to see a parking lot in all my life!
We were all freezing so we headed down to Ashford and stopped at Whittaker’s Bunkhouse for some hot tea- perfection! Then we went back to the cabin, heated up some soup and visited with my brother-in-law for a bit before turning in for the night.
DAY 7 – MONDAY:
LAST DAY AT MT. RAINIER
This was such a sad day! We had to pack up and leave our perfect little cabin in the woods, knowing this was our last day in this beautiful state.
Luckily, the weather was so much better than the previous days, so we headed back to Mt. Rainier once again to see it one last time. We had clear blue skies, and picture perfect snow on the ground! It was PERFECT! The clouds around Mt. Rainier herself were super stubborn and wouldn’t move, so we only got a few glimpses of her- but they were magnificent glimpses!
We hiked to Myrtle Falls, which would have been even prettier if Mt. Rainier wasn’t being so shy at the time! Then we did the Alta Vista trail. Both trails were easy and family friendly.
After wrapping up our time at Mt. Rainier, we headed towards Seattle for our last night in Washington. We stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites in Seatac. It was conveniently located near the airport which was perfect for our early flight the next morning!
DAY 8 – TUESDAY:
TRAVEL DAY
And just like that, our time was up and we were heading home.
I literally had tears in my eyes when I turned in the keys to the Jeep. I didn’t want to leave this beautiful place behind. I wanted to stay just a little longer. The mountains were calling me back but unfortunately, we had to leave.
As we flew over Mt. Rainier on our way home, I couldn’t help but smile as I thought about all of the wonderful memories we made during our trip. The Pacific Northwest definitely stole a piece of my heart and I know that I’ll be back to visit again!
NOTES:
-Olympic was my favorite park out of the two we visited! I think it’s partly because the weather was perfect. And also because it is so diverse. I loved the fact that it includes beaches, rainforests, mountain peaks, waterfalls, lakes; it literally has it all!
-I would love to come back in the summer to see Mt. Rainier when the wildflowers are in bloom! We were about 2 weeks late to that game. I bet it is absolutely stunning!
-Be prepared for lots of driving! Everything we did was very spread out.
-Bring groceries when heading to Ashford! They only have two tiny, over priced grocery stores in town and they don’t have a big selection to choose from.
