PNW National Parks: Olympic and Rainier

We had no clue where to take a family trip this summer. We knew we would head to the beach at some point but wanted to explore. When you live in the Southeastern United States, the weather is a significant factor in where you choose to make travel plans. Going to the Southwest or the Caribbean is an option but to escape the insane temps of the summer you just have to travel North.

We whittled down our chillier weather choices to the following trips:

Acadia National Park and a Northeast beach town tour
Mackinaw Island and Great Lakes
Oregon coast and Olympic National Park
Olympic and Rainier National Park
Yosemite, Redwood, and California National Parks

We narrowed it down to the Oregon coast and Olympic trip or the Olympic and Rainier trip. The deciding factor in choosing the later versus the Oregon coast was that we would have less driving and stay in two AirBnBs for the Olympic and Rainier trip versus three AirBnBs for the Oregon/Olympic trip.

So, we have our trip selected. This is how we made a double national park trip across the country happen with two kids who are 4 and 6.

The first big step is flights, with this trip we made Seattle our location of choice. Simply booking a round trip instead of multi-city was nice and made the flight selection and rental car booking much simpler.

Next in the planning process was the difficult process of deciding how much time to spend in each park. What we ended up doing was four nights in the Port Angeles area which is a decent home base for Olympic, and three nights in Packwood which served as our home base for Rainier.

If you read about the idea of a "home base" for each park online you'll find many differing opinions on locations for the national parks. Each are very large parks with multiple entrances and key points to visit. Three full days in Olympic and two full days in Rainier, with travel days around each point, ended up being just right for what we needed. If you want to do more intense hiking or discover certain aspects of the parks, then you need to tweak the days spent in each area.

Now to the fun part - Our Washington state itinerary.

Pikes Place + AirBnB

After flying into Seattle we grabbed our luggage and car and spent a few hours in the downtown area and explored Pikes Market. We ate French Pastries at Le Panier, picked up some Rainier cherries from a local vendor, ate clam chowder and grilled Salmon, and grabbed some homegrown strawberries. It was a blast. Every sort of fruit, vegetable, fresh fish, pastry, and souvenir that you could imagine.

After we had our fill of the market, we took off towards Port Angeles. The trip took a bit longer than we expected since there was a two-hour wait for the unexpected car ferry to take our car to the Olympic Peninsula, as a result, we didn't get into our Air BnB till late that night and capped off a long day of travel.

Marymere Falls + Sol Duc Falls + Lake Crescent

+ Olympic Game Farms

We were up by a nice 5am, feeling like 8am. We left and went for coffee and a drive to Hurricane Ridge. We saw elk grazing and the most beautiful mountain peaks covered with snow. We did the Cirque Rim Nature Trail and it was quiet and so peaceful with insane views. Just a quick .8 mile walk, very worth it.

Then, we grabbed more coffee and some snacks and headed to Olympic Game Farms. Drive-thru farms or zoos can be hit or miss. Some of them are depressing, others thrilling. Bearizona outside of the Grand Canyon is my favorite of all time. The Olympic Game Farm lived up to the hype.

With buffalo, elk, llamas, highland cows, and bears gathering around your car ready to eat loaves of bread, it was well worth the price of admission. They are way friendlier than we expected and when the llama stuck its head inside Katie’s window, she screamed and tossed her entire loaf at it. The kids cried because she wasted their bread so we grabbed more for $5 at the ticket booth and went through the park once again. A giant bear waved at us and George threw a piece of bread on his back. A giant elk nearly climbed into the car with us. We screamed and laughed, it was something we won’’t soon forget.

After the farm, we drove to Marymere Falls for our first hike of the trip. The hike to the falls was about 2.8 miles with 400 feet of elevation gain.

Once we finished up, we drove to Sol Duc Falls, at this point in the day the wheels came off of the bus. Given the three-hour time change and dramatic day of travel the day before, the kids lost it. What I've learned about traveling with young kids is that they are often more capable of doing hard things than we give them credit for. I've also learned that breakdowns are a part of family travel to a certain extent, and to graciously feed them extra and to expect to still have to break up a few sibling fights even when you’re on a beautiful trail on a mountainside.

Learning how and attempting to teach kids to work through tiredness and hunger is what I enjoy about adventure-based travel. It may sound silly, but given the level of comfort that most of their days consist of at home, being uncomfortable and tired is a great learning opportunity. Travel days are long with hiking, driving, time changes, and not knowing what to expect next, and we are just there to help them along. Once you accept that some breakdowns are a part of basic long-distance adventure travel with little kids, it really does free you to explore and see just how tough your kids are.

Anyways, back to the day. The breakdowns began and so we adjusted, instead of hiking Sol Duc Falls we drove to the resort and ate dinner near the hot springs before driving back home for the day. A small setback for our plans, but understandable given the long days and time change. On the way home we stopped on the pull-off at Crescent Lake, it was sunny and beautiful and the kids were eating their 62nd snack of the day, hearing a Yoto story, and feeling like it was 10pm. Katie and I got out and enjoyed the view, gave some kisses, and then headed home for the night.

Day 3 - Hoh Rainforest and Ruby Beach

Started our day off early again since no one had adjusted to the time change yet (not a bad thing, it was nice to start early!) and we began the two-hour drive to the Hoh Rainforest. After we waited in the entrance line for an hour or so, we hiked the Hall of Mosses and Hoh Rainforest nature trail. All in all, it was about 3 miles of hiking between the two trails. The kids became Jr. Rangers and loved it. Basically, they give the kids a booklet to draw photos of things they see and learn about where they are and the animals that live here. After the trails, you show your work to the Park Rangers and they have the kids raise their right hand and they ask “Will you protect and preserve the national park around you?” the kids mumble yes in a shy voice and they get a cute wooden pin that says Olympic Park, Jr Ranger. Perfect free souvenir for them!

After a lunch break in the car, we drove to Ruby Beach. The drastic northwest coastline with enormous rocks and crashing waves was wild to see after being in a literal rainforest twenty minutes before. A thrilling conclusion to the day.

Lake Crescent and Hurricane Ridge

Another day, another set of stunning locations. Lake Crescent was a spot we passed each day in our journeys at Olympic, and today we hiked around it and spent lunch at the lake taking in the icy water and views. After that, we headed up to Hurricane Ridge to eat some snacks and walk around for a bit. We headed home that afternoon for some downtime / foster training that we were finishing up on Zoom.

Whale watching and traveling to Mount Rainier

We packed our bags and drove an hour to Port Townsend for my personal highlight of the trip, whale watching. We booked the tickets a couple of days in advance and headed off on a four-hour whale watching tour. With both inside and outdoor seating/standing spots, you had the choice of standing against the thrashing winds and waves at 40 MPH. I loved the roller coaster that was standing while we drove for half an hour, and then once my port carnitas breakfast skillet started thrashing about it was time to head inside and sit down. Throughout the four-hour journey, we saw bald eagles, elephant seals, a ton of jellyfish, and of course, whales.

We first followed a large humpback whale around for about fifteen minutes before moving on to a pack of orcas. Lastly, we spotted a solo enormous male orca that we trailed for a bit before heading back to port. An absolutely thrilling experience that was well worth the price tag. Truly once in a lifetime. We didn’t have a proper lens to really capture their beauty but we did get a few great photos.

After the tour, we began our four-hour journey to Packwood which would serve as our home base for Mount Rainier.

Paradise entrance of Mount Rainier

Worth noting, that at certain times of the year, you need a park reservation to enter certain Mount Rainier entrances. You can do this through the Recreation.gov app easily, and it only costs $2. Time slots open at 7pm the night before and are typically a two-hour window of when you can arrive. Given our zest for Disney and Genie+ we sat there spamming refresh as the time window opened and we got an early slot for the Paradise entrance. After the drive there, we did what was our most intense day of hiking. We did a pretty basic hike from Paradise's visitor center that was around 2 miles with 450 feet of elevation gain. We started on one trail, which was covered in snow, we hopped on another trail and passed a few really kind park rangers who told us the waterfall trail was clear so then we hopped on that one and it was stunning. Like a painting. The kids fed a chipmunk some cheezits and we admired the volcano and waterfall, then hiked back down. The waterfall is called Mrytle Falls and was so worth it!

After a lunch break and some exploration inside the visitors center, we took off to Snow Lake and completed a 3 mile hike with 700 feet of gain to a gorgeous glacial lake. This hike was up and down the entire way, anytime we thought we were there it was just another downhill. Once we got there, we found a spot close to the water and had a snack and George got in up to his knees in what was freezing glacial water.

This day was a prime example of kids being tougher than they think or we think they are. Five miles of hiking with over 1100 feet of elevation gain and hours of driving. Plus we had to tell George to slow down multiple times as he would just run and leave us all in the dust. This kid is made for hiking. There was certainly some complaining and a breakdown or six from both kids, but the hikes were intense and my tiny kids conquered them. So impressive!

Sunrise at Mount Rainier

No, I don't mean literal sunrise because that is around 5:15 in the morning and an hour's drive away. Sunrise is the other key spot inside of Mount Rainier, our reservation wasn't until 1PM (We were adjusted to the time change at this point and tired). We took the morning to play ping-ping, Monopoly, build lincoln logs, and play some original Xbox games to the delight of all. Once we arrived at Sunrise the last full day and pace of the trip really caught up to us, we hiked about an hour and all looked at each other ready to hit the car and head back for coffee and snacks. The good news is that everywhere you drive around the park features gorgeous peaks and differing views of Mount Rainier and Mount Saint Helens. These views were definitely more intense than the views at Paradise. I’m very glad we got to experience both,

With temperatures ranging from mid-40s to mid-70s plus some of the most beautiful views we’ve ever seen, Washington was beyond thrilling. We loved the small port towns and coffee shacks on every corner, with wildlife everywhere you look. Towns just had herds of elk hanging out in front yards, casually munching on grass as you walked by. We cannot recommend this duo national park trip more, with hiking at every skill level there is truly something for everyone. Thanks for reading if you made it this far!!