Out + About
Olympic National Park: A Seattle Family’s Off-Season Getaway The perfect Pacific Northwest escape for families on a budget Story and photos by JiaYing Grygiel We are a family of reluctant hikers and weather wimps. But as a Pacific Northwest parent, I felt it was my duty to expose my kids to some local wilderness. In the days leading up to our recent getaway to Olympic National Park, I checked the forecast obsessively. Cold and rainy. A trip to the peninsula in the off-season means iffy weather, but also far fewer visitors and more peace and tranquility. The main selling point for me? Lower rates. I booked a lakeside room at the Lake Quinault Lodge for $95 a night (parentmap.com/lodges). In the peak season, a viewless room in the main lodge goes for $380 plus tax. For a killer deal, sure, I’ll pack extra coats, rubber boots and lots of spare pairs of dry socks. Wild and huge Olympic National Park Olympic National Park is big — bigger than
the entire state of Rhode Island. Some families tackle the park as one enormous loop from Seattle, driving about 350 miles around the whole peninsula. But I didn’t want to bite off more than we could chew. We stuck with just the southern part of the park, using Lake Quinault Lodge as our home base. From Lake Quinault, we drove 40 minutes along U.S. Highway 101 to reach the Pacific coast. A quarter-mile past Kalaloch Lodge, we stopped at the large day-use parking lot and walked a short path down to the sandy beach. Another benefit of visiting in the off-season? We practically had the beach to ourselves. Just waves and sand, and we even caught a sun break. I completely forgot about COVID. A bald eagle soared overhead. We posed for pictures in front of the
Tree of Life, famous for its exposed roots hanging onto nothing but air. My kids found long sticks and happily drew in the sand. The Hoh Rain Forest Another must-see spot for families visiting Olympic National Park is the Hoh Rain Forest. The Hoh is about a 1.5-hour drive from Lake Quinault, or about a 45-minute drive from Forks, located to the north. The ranger at the gate waved us right in with my resident fourth-grader’s Every Kid Outdoors pass, saving us the $30 park entrance fee. We strolled the 0.8-mile Hall of Mosses trail, an easy loop through thick forest literally dripping with moss and rain (duh). I may have committed a wilderness faux pas by busting out the umbrellas, but hey, at that point we were running out of dry
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