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The Olympic Three-Way

  • 9
  • 11:15
  • 447 mi
  • $72
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Created by Anna Hider - May 31st 2018

I spent a full day of a two-and-a-half trip to Seattle taking on a challenge I invented, and dubbed "The Olympic Three-Way". That's where you visit the mountains, the rainforest, and the beach all in one day. It was a lot of driving... but it was worth it.

310 E Pike St, Seattle, WA, US

Victrola Coffee

We were staying in Capitol Hill and since we knew it was gonna be a long day, we started off at Victrola Coffee in the neighborhood. It opened at 6:30am which was great because we probably got here around 7am. Now, I love coffee, probably more than the average human, but the large coffees in Seattle are ungodly. So I ordered a medium. I also got a Nutella brioche roll thing that we ate while stuck in traffic on Hurricane Ridge and it was so yummy.

1
23mi 00h 57m
Photo of Kingston Ferry Terminal
3.5

11264 NE State Hwy. 104, Kingston, WA, US

Kingston Ferry Terminal

1

We took the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry on our way to the park, which was fun. We parked on the upper level and then went into the... waiting room, I guess? It was a bit early so there weren't too many people on the boat, and so there was plenty of seating by the windows. We also went outside, and I got to stand right at the front of the ferry and yell "I'M KING OF THE WORLD!". I also saw this amazing poster about the life raft, which looked like a fun party boat.

2
13mi 01h 14m
2

"The Party Boat."

3
80mi 02h 02m

Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center, Port Angeles, WA, US

Hurricane Ridge

3

Then, we drove through Port Angeles to Hurricane Ridge. They were doing a little bit of road construction, but we didn't have to wait more than like, 15 minutes in traffic. We took advantage of most of the pull-offs to take pictures as we wound our way up. I was worried that the drive would be super steep, super narrow, and really scary, but as far as driving up mountains goes, it was almost relaxing. We also saw a bear crossing the road! I named him Smokey. We just walked around the visitor center, enjoyed the views and the snow, and then left. I would have loved to have hiked Hurricane Hill, but 1. Not much time and 2. I was not dressed to hike in the snow.

4
54mi 01h 35m
4

"Hi, Smokey!"

5
57mi 01h 20m

18113 Upper Hoh Rd., Forks, WA, US

Hoh Rainforest

5

I'm not ashamed to say that we ate at a combination Taco Bell/KFC for lunch. It was delicious. Then we drove to the Hoh Rainforest. It was a bit of a drive, but the part along Lake Crescent was really pretty. The drive off the main road down to the Hoh visitor center was also gorgeous. The bright blue water, the green moss and ferns... good stuff. From the visitor center, we did the Hall of Mosses Trail. It was a quick hike, we probably took about half an hour, maybe 45 minutes on it. You get to see massively tall trees that are just dripping moss. They look like ancient Ents, but not alive or creepy. Ents are the Lord of the Rings things, right?

6
31mi 00h 44m
Photo of Tree Root Cave
4.1

HWY 101, Forks, WA, US

Tree Root Cave

6

As we left the rainforest and continued the Three-Way loop, we passed by a lot of beaches. I considered a stop at Ruby Beach, but we wound up parking at a pull-off near the Kalaloch Campground. This was a great thing because we were right near the Tree Root Cave. It's wild to see in person! Plus, this portion of beach was less crowded, and there were buttloads of sand dollars and really near shells.

7
122mi 02h 17m

212 4th Ave E, Olympia, WA, US

King Solomon's Reef

7

The drive from the beach back to Seattle was pretty long, so we took a break from the road and from binge-listening to NPR and stopped in Olympia to eat some dinner. Olympia looked really cool and was filled with punk people who looked way cooler than me. We ate at this diner, King Solomon's Reef. It was so greasy and so delicious. They did breakfast all day, so I had an omelette that was literally loaded with cheese and hash browns, which were swimming in a pool of butter. They had beer as well but I decided to wait on that until we got back to Capitol Hill.

62mi 01h 07m

1221 E Pike St, Seattle, WA, US

Elysian Brewing Company

A flight at Elysian was the perfect way to unwind after the long day. I probably would have ordered food, the dude next to me was eating steak and it looked so good, but honestly, dinner was so ridiculously greasy that I couldn't.

Anna Hider

Just a Civil War beard enthusiast, writer at Roadtrippers, and aspiring astronaut reaching for the stars.