Destinations Highlights

Adventure Guides
- Hiking Hip Deep in Florida's Swamps
Destinations
- Caribou Country: Video and Photos

Share your tales of travel & adventure with our step-by-step guide. Upload trail descriptions, photos, video, and more.

Backpacker Magazine – August 2008

Olympic National Park

Explore two ecosystems in this hinterland of moss-draped forests, ancient trees, and snowcapped peaks.

by: By Michael Lanza

Dosewallips Mountains (Don Geyer)

Watch the 3D Video

Entrance Strategy | The Trip | Exit Strategy

What distinguishes backpacking in Olympic National Park from any other park in the Lower 48? The ability to go from one of the planet's lushest temperate rainforests to alpine wildflower meadows beneath glaciated peaks. The stunning scenery has not gone unnoticed: Olympic's best-known hikes can offer all the solitude of a Seattle coffee shop. Beat the crowds by following in the footsteps of the 1890 Press Expedition, led by the first non-native Americans to cross the Low Divide, a high pass that divides drainages between the Pacific and Puget Sound.

Subscribe to Backpacker magazine

PRINT THIS PAGE EMAIL THIS PAGE RSS FEED

Your rating:

Reader Rating: -

1 2 3 4

Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

-->

Digg Delicious Yahoo Facebook Reddit StumbleUpon Google Newsvine Facebook

READERS COMMENTS

I just spent a week in the North Cascades National park and did not have the chance to visit Olympic. I can't wait for a return trip to hike ONP.
Posted: Sep 08, 2008 Barry Slater

It's really beautiful up here, and is only 2 hours from Seattle. There are bus lines that go up from Seattle to Port Angeles, and from there you can see it all, Even to Vancouver Island (which is a 1.5 hour ferry ride away). A really great place. Best to go in the summer. In late July in Sequim the Lavendar Festival is great.
Posted: Sep 03, 2008 Andrew Rankine