trip dates:

saturday, august 28th through monday, september 6th (labor day)

Join the Austin Sierra Club for a trip to the magnificent Olympic National Park on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.

• Camp in forest campgrounds
• Hike the mountain and beach trails
• Beach-comb some of the wild and isolated beaches of the Peninsula
• Bird-watch for sea birds and eagles

trip logistics

Dates: Saturday, August 28th through Monday, September 6th (Labor Day)

Cost: $675 per person ($710 for non-members). Note that this cost does not include air fare to SeaTac airport. You should also budget roughly $350 for round-trip air fare, although cheaper fares are available if you reserve soon enough in advance (see the Air Fare section below)

Trip leaders:

• Chuck Byrd (cbyrd4@austin.rr.com) or (512) 292-6985
• Celeste Padilla (celestehpadilla@yahoo.com )

BACKPACK: [sorry, but we cannot offer a backpack option this year.]

calculating cost

Trip cost: $675 (members) $710 (non-members)

You must submit a $100 deposit per person to reserve a space on this trip. Deposits are can be mailed immediately and will be accepted until the trip is filled. Deposits received after the trip has filled will be held uncashed and the sender will be placed on a waiting list against the likelihood of a cancellation.

The remainder of the trip fee will be due in full no later than August 6th.

Participants who must cancel prior to August 1st will receive a full refund of any monies received as long as their place on the trip can be filled from the waiting list. Cancellations after August 1st will be subject to charges based on any trip costs incurred on behalf of the individual up to that point with any remaining money returned to the participant who must cancel.

Trip cost covers:

• National and State park camping fees
• Camping fee at commercial site near SeaTac
• All meals in camp
• Transportation by van
• Ferry fees
• Entrance fees to Olympic National Park
• Entrance fees at SolDuc Hot Springs

Cost DOES NOT cover:

• Personal expenses (souvenirs, snacks, etc.)
• Showers and/or laundry at campgrounds (if a fee is charged)
• Restaurant expenses (any meals on the road - probably no more than 3 meals)

RESERVATION: Payment of the trip deposit establishes your reservation. The trip is limited to 15 basecamp participants and 10 backpack participants.

Mail your DEPOSIT ($100) and/or trip fee, made out to THE AUSTIN SIERRA CLUB, to:

• Chuck Byrd
• 4207 Iriona Bend
• Austin, TX 78749

at the park

The Olympic National Park and the surrounding National Forest comprise one of the most beautiful and unique protected wilderness areas in the country. The park is truly a remote jewel in the National Park system. This trip will circle the peninsula from the northeast corner (starting in Seattle) around the north to the west coast, south to the Quinault Valley and finally back to SeaTac airport north of Tacoma.

Here is a link to the National Park Service website for Olympic National Park. Take some time and explore the website to get an idea of what a fantastic adventure this park has in store for you.

daily schedule

Participants will be met at SeaTac airport by the vans that will provide the transportation during the trip. From SeaTac, we will drive to Seattle to the ferry docks and get in line for the ferry crossing to Bainbridge Island. While waiting for the ferry, participants will get a chance to make a quick visit to the Pike Street Market, just up the hill from the ferry docks (this will only be possible if the wait for the ferry is an hour or more, which it frequently is on a weekend in the summer.)

From the ferry dock on Bainbridge Island, we will drive to the Dungeness Spit, a long stretch of beach famous as the home of the Dungeness crabs that you see on menus all over the US. If there is time, we will have dinner at one of the famous crab houses close to Sequim (this will be one of the dinners on your own). Following dinner, we will continue to Port Angeles and then inland into the Olympic National Park and the Heart O' the Hills campground where will make our first camp.

Sunday, August 29th

We will start with breakfast in camp and after clean-up and lunch preparation we will start with a warm-up hike on the nature trail at the campground. This trail is an excellent introduction to the kind of lowland forests we will be hiking through later in the week except that it will be dryer since we will be in the 'rainshadow' of the Olympics at this point. We will then drive up the mountain and check out the Visitor Center before heading out for some of the local hikes. Hikes in the Hurricane Hill area will include a trip up to Hurricane Hill and hikes in the Hurricane Meadows area. We will pack lunches and can stop and eat at any of several picnic spots along the way. Bring your rain gear and jackets since it is frequently cold and wintry up on the Hill.

Dinner in camp.

This will be a long hiking day. We will return to Hurricane Hill and the visitor center briefly before we take a long dirt road along knife-ridges out to Obstruction Point trailhead. From there we will take the longest hike of the trip (for the campground campers anyway) in a long scenic loop which will take us into the edge of the interior of the Olympics. The route will be out Badger Valley to Grand Lake and back up across Lillian Ridge. Bring plenty of water and energy food. (see the hike description page for a more detailed description of this hike.)

Dinner in camp.

follow this link for a detailed list of all the hikes

for this trip: hike details

This will be a fun and travel day. Our ultimate destination for the day will be the Ozette Lake campground, but we will not get there until late in the afternoon. Our first stop after leaving Heart O' the Hills will be Marymere Falls, a beautiful falls and a really nice short hike near Storm King on Lake Crescent.
From there we will drive up the forested Sol Duc Valley to the end of the road where we will take the short hike to Sol Duc falls, one of the most picturesque waterfalls on the peninsula. After the hike, we will backtrack to the Sol Duc hot springs for a leisurely soak in one of the several pools at the springs. Bring your shower gear and clean clothes. The showers are basic but adequate and by this point on the trip you will be ready for a long shower and shampoo. (The cost of the hot springs and shower are included in your trip fees, so don't rush in before your van leader lines up tickets for the group.)
After the soak and shower, we will continue our journey to Ozette Lake, arriving there in the late afternoon.
Dinner in camp.

For more information about the hot springs visit the GORP HOT SPRINGS site

Wednesday, September 1st

The hike from Ozette Lake and back along the Sand Point/Cape Alava loop trail is one of the most interesting of the trip because of the wide variety of ecosystems that we will be hiking through. The all-day hike is 9.3 miles but seems less because it is virtually flat and because of the ever-changing vegetation. We will take the hike slowly and give folks plenty of time to observe and explore the three-mile beach, one of the wildest and most remote on the Pacific coast. If the weather has been right, the campground will be surrounded with wild blackberry vines with ripe berries. You will have to compete with the local birds for the berries.

Dinner in camp.

From our base camp at Bogachiel State Park, we will drive to the fabulous Hoh Rainforest a short drive away and inside the Olympic National Park. We will have the entire day here, so we can explore as much of the area as possible. We will stop at the Visitor Center and participants will have an opportunity to check out the exhibits and purchase postcards, maps, books, posters and other souvenirs if they desire. Two very nice Nature trails start from the back of the visitor center and offer the best example of the nature of a temperate rainforest to be found on the peninsula. (See the Hike description page for details).
We will eat lunch at one of the picnic areas near the visitor center and explore the area. Hikers who would like to do so can hike down the Hoh River Trail as far as they like. The trail actually goes all the way to the Blue Glacier and Mount Olympus, but don't plan on going that far in one afternoon.
In the early evening, we will return to camp at Bogachiel.

Dinner in camp.

Saturday, September 3rd

We will pack up camp and leave Bogachiel after breakfast and lunch preparation and will continue south, passing some of the best and most interesting beaches on the peninsula. We will stop at several of the beaches along the coast (Ruby and Kalaloch beaches at least, more if we have time.) In the afternoon, we will make our way back into the rainforest along the North Quinalt Lake road to our remote campsite at Graves Creek.

Dinner in camp.

We should have the entire morning to explore the area around Graves Creek and the Quinault River, one of the wildest and most remote parts of the Olympic National Forest. There are several hiking trails close to the primitive campsite and the creek is often full of trout and even the occasional exhausted salmon returning from a final spawning.

In the afternoon, we will pack up our gear and say a final farewell to the Olympic National Park. On the way out, we will stop by the Quinalt Lake Lodge, a beautiful restored forest lodge where Franklin Roosevelt once stayed. If the timing is right and folks are so inclined, we can have an elegant lunch in the Lodge dining room.

After lunch, we will continue our drive around the bottom of the Olympic National Park to a commercial campground (probably a KOA) close to the SeaTac airport so that we can make an early departure to the airport.

Dinner in a local restaurant on your own.

equipment

[Plates, cooking gear and eating utensils as well as food will be provided by the Club for all meals in camp. You do not need to bring your own cooking/eating gear.]

A note on CAMERA EQUIPMENT:

The Olympic Peninsula is notoriously hard on cameras. It is extremely wet on the West Coast and the abrupt changes from sea level to mountain elevations combined with cold, windy, rainy weather are a challenge for any delicate electronic equipment, including regular and digital cameras. On the other hand, you don't want to leave your good camera behind and miss shots of some of the most beautiful scenery in the US. Here is my advice: leave the really expensive large-format camera at home and bring disposables for snapshots. I have drowned two nice auto-format cameras on the Peninsula and I now take only my Minolta APS underwater camera. It takes great photos and takes shots under water. It has survived three trips and the only problem is that the battery is slow to function in the mountains when it is cold. If you cannot bear to leave your good camera at home, bring along a large ziploc bag or a kayak dry bag for storage. Collect the packets or cylinders of silica gel (the ones that come in vitamin bottles or packed with new cameras for shipping and which say "do not eat") and pack them in the bag to absorb humidity. Keep your camera equipment in the closed bag when you are not using it and check the inside of the bag frequently for water vapor.

weather

The end of August and the beginning of September are right in the middle of the 'dry season' on the Olympic Peninsula, but given the fact that this is a rainforest (at least on the west coast), that is a relative term. You should plan on at least a few days of rainy weather but hopefully no more than that. We will be in the mountains part of the time and may actually encounter late (or early) snow, especially on Hurricane Ridge. In general, dress for cool and windy days with cold (but not freezing) nights.

Here are links to current weather conditions in three cities:

(use the BACK button on your browser to return to this page after viewing the weather)

Weather in SEATTLE

Weather in PORT ANGELES (NORTH COAST)

Weather in FORKS (WEST COAST)

Check the weather and the forecast regularly beginning about a week before the trip and keep checking for unusual weather trends in the predictions. BE PREPARED.

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