Some friends from school and I are planning on spending our spring break enjoying the great outdoors rather than getting drunk on a beach. We are looking to go backpacking and have settled on Olypmic National Park. We have all been backpacking on several occasions but none of us would consider ourselves experts . Does anyone have a trail recommendation? We are looking to go for 4-5 days. I know the weather can be a bit crazy that time of year, trying to avoid a ton of snow if possible but honestly we are game for anything. Thanks for your help

The Olympic Park official website, the last time I looked, had very up to date info on the current status and condition of the park trails. I would certainly take a look there.

Just looked into there website and found out they've started to remove a dam up there. Awesome news and worth a look.


Enjoying the great outdoors rather than getting drunk and forgetting everything is a great choice. I wish the kids down in Santa Barbara would think that way..

For spring break in the Olympics, you have two options: (1) one of the long, low elevation river valleys, like the Hoh or Enchanted Valley and (2) the wilderness coast. The latter is awesome but also extremely rugged and requires paying extremely close attention to tide tables. Many of the headlands have to be rounded at low tide. Be aware that with minus tides (lower than average low tides), the corresponding high tide will flood the entire beach. Wherever you go, it will be wet, so take good rain gear!

Note that bear canisters are required for food storage on the coast (more for aggressive raccoons than bears) and any place inland that doesn't have bear wires. You can rent them from the Park for a nominal fee.

Read through the excellent trail descriptions on the ONP website (nps.gov) and contact the Wilderness Information Center in Port Angeles for more info. You'll need to get backcountry camping permits.

You might also want to check trip reports on www.nwhikers.net

I read on nwhikers.net, but can't find the info now, that access to the Elwha Dam is closed while they're working on removing the dam. You might want to check when you talk to the Park Service.

Sorry, never been to the Olympic NF. But it does remind me of my spring break backpacking trip my senior year. We went to Mt Baker NF near Verlot. We started at Lake Evan, hiked to Boardman lake, and planned to hike to Clear Lake and then to Beaver Plant Lake. However, having just moved from Texas the summer before, I didn't expect snow at all, and we ended up lost between Boardman Lake and Clear Lake. Well, we weren't completely lost, we just didn't know where we were. We ended up setting up camp in the snow (first time I ever did that), and then heading back to Boardman the next day. Then we just messed around Boardman and hiked out the 3rd day. We had a great time and learned a lot.