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ONP Trip Planner

Olympic National Park is a big park. Our trip planner lets you make the most of your stay whether you are here for a week or just out for a day trip.

Recently

Sol Duc Falls and Canyon Creek

Little River Trail - Once again but a little farther

Little River Trail

Dungeness Highlands with Hummingbirds

Spruce Railroad Trail with Trilliums

Elwha to Altair - Early Spring Flower Edition

Dungeness Spit at a Low Tide

University of Washington Cherry Blossoms

West of Morse Creek

Little River Trail

Archive

2004 - 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2005 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2006 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2007 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2008 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2009 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2010 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2011 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2012 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2013 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2014 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2015 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2016 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2017 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2018 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2019 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2020 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2021 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2022 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2023 - 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

2024 - 01 02 03 04

Month by Month History

Keywords

flowers
winter
spring
seattle
food
port angeles
kale
high country
hurricane hill
elwha
autumn
farmers' market
christmas
lake angeles
trillium
trails
spruce railroad
lake crescent
hurricane ridge
dungeness

All Keywords

Upcoming Hiking Tides

These are low tides of under three feet at least two hours after sunrise or before sunset.

Next tides for La Push
4/19/24 4:55 PM 1.24 ft
4/20/24 5:30 PM 1.38 ft
4/21/24 6:01 PM 1.59 ft
4/25/24 8:14 AM -0.69 ft
4/26/24 8:50 AM -0.78 ft
4/27/24 9:31 AM -0.71 ft
4/28/24 10:17 AM -0.52 ft

Next tides for Dungeness
4/20/24 8:57 AM 2.73 ft
4/21/24 9:15 AM 1.93 ft
4/22/24 9:36 AM 1.12 ft
4/23/24 10:00 AM 0.34 ft
4/24/24 10:28 AM -0.33 ft
4/25/24 11:00 AM -0.86 ft
4/26/24 11:36 AM -1.2 ft

Next tides for Cape Alava
4/19/24 5:21 PM 1.28 ft
4/20/24 5:53 PM 1.52 ft
4/24/24 8:15 AM -0.33 ft
4/25/24 8:50 AM -0.63 ft
4/26/24 9:27 AM -0.77 ft
4/27/24 10:09 AM -0.76 ft
4/28/24 10:55 AM -0.64 ft

The Kaleberg Journal - April 2024

04/18 - Sol Duc Falls and Canyon Creek We hadn't been to the Sol Duc Valley since the fall when we went to watch the salmon fighting their way upstream. This time, we were going to look for trilliums and other spring flowers. Sol Duc Falls is about an hours drive from Port Angeles, but it is one of the prettiest drives in Olympic National Park. Most of the park is roadless, so visitors drive around it on route 101 which runs around the park so it isn't a prime national park experience. Heading west from Port Angeles, route 101 runs through the park along the south short of beautiful Lake Crescent. To get to Sol Duc, make a left turn after the lake and head deeper into the park following the river. It looks like the hot spring resort is being spruced up for the season but not open yet. We drove to the end of the road. The parking lot was almost empty. We hiked to the falls which is about as far as most people go. The falls are pretty spectacular, roaring under the bridge, nested in the forest. We cross the river and headed up into the hills on the very rocky trail to Deer Lake. It was rough going with rocks and high steps, and we didn't get anywhere near Deer Lake or even the snow line. We made it to the bridge over Canyon Creek. That was enough hike for us. On the way down, we spotted trilliums, but spring has just started here. We'll be back again soon. Maybe we'll get a bit farther. If not, we'll enjoy the falls and the climb.	The forest trail
Sol Duc Falls	Down below
Ferns	Canyon Creek
The little bridge over Canyon Creek	An old stump
Snow on the mountains across the valley	Pacific dogwood out of season
The rocky trail	Oregon grape
Mushroom log	Trillium
More rocky trail	Life on the rocks
More rocky trail	Even more rocky trail
Small waterfall feeding into the Sol Duc	Another look at the falls
A side creek	Forest green
Another side creek	More trilliums

Keywords:

04/14 - Little River Trail - Once again but a little farther Often, when we travel, we'll find a restaurant we like so much that we'll cancel our reservations elsewhere and go back a second or even third time. This time, it was the Little River Trail. We liked our hike so much, that we came back later in the week and retraced our steps and went a little bit farther. Earlier, we had made it to the second log bridge. This time, we made it across and all the way to the little waterfall. We were rewarded, not just with the waterfall, but with a cliff side covered with fawn lilies. There were trilliums as well, now further along, and even a calypso orchid which a fellow hiker mentioned to us as we compared notes about the trail. The trilliums have yet to peak, but more and more of them are out. We'll be back again, maybe not this week, but soon.	One of the passages
The river, blues, browns and greens	A rock covered with life
Fawn lilies	Another
Yet another	Just a distinctive leaf
A trillium	The waterfall
A close up of the waterfall	Another trillium
And another	The fawn lilies again, on our way back
The river again	The trail along a cliff face
More of the Little River	Yet another forest view
A double trillium	Yet more trilliums
More of the forest browns and greens	Mushrooms
Forest friends	That calypso orchid

Keywords: little river, trillium, waterfall

04/11 - Little River Trail Next on our list of spring hikes and trillium safaris was the Little River Trail. We started at the brand new parking lot at around 1100' and made our way down to the river, across the bridge, then up again to continue along the trail. Were there trilliums? Yes. Were there a lot of trilliums? No, net yet, but they are coming out. We also saw a lot of mushrooms, almost certainly poisonous, and, of course, the river itself. We also saw a frog. It wasn't all that long ago that people were worried about frogs, but we've been seeing and hearing them more often lately. We saw this frog by the side of the trail. It was camouflaged but not well enough, so we got a good look. Either we've been getting better at spotting frogs, or there are a few more of them around.	They're back!
More trilliums	And even more
The fourth plague	The trail, almost mystical
The river	There are some amazing rock walls.
Violets	More of the river
Even more river	Yet even more
A stretch of trail	Mushrooms, probably toxic
More poisonous mushrooms	There's a little seasonal waterfall across the river that we always look for.
Another sign of spring	More rock wall
Typical of the region	Even more deadly mushrooms
Young false mock Solomon's seal	Another trillium
A bit more of the river	Spring water flow

Keywords: little river, spring, trillium

04/05 - Dungeness Highlands with Hummingbirds There are two great worlds to explore at the Dungeness Spit. There's the amazing spit itself and the coastal forest leading to it, and there are the highlands which follow the coast and run inland. We explore the highlands. You can walk the whole loop in about 50 minutes, but we like to go longer, so we head out for about 40 minutes to an overlook and then head back the long way. The old grass is now pale straw, but the new green grass is growing taller. There were currants and strawberries in bloom and chervil growing wild along the trail. We also saw two hummingbirds perched high as if claiming the bush they perched on as their own.	Spring color
To our surprise, a trillium	Distant mountains
Mountains and clouds	More clouds and mountains
The vista	Mahonia, Oregon grape in bloom
One of the hummingbirds	Across the field
Another view of the field	The trail, still early spring
More fields, clouds and mountains	The trail again
Another hummingbird
Strawberry flowers	Red and gold
More strawberry flowers	Some currant flowers
Trees still bare	Looking south
A bit of forest	A fascinating ground cover

Keywords: birds, dungeness spit, spring

04/04 - Spruce Railroad Trail with Trilliums It was spring break, so the Spruce Railroad Trail was busy. There were a lot of families with children. Our goal was to find trilliums. Lake Crescent is about 600 feet above sea level, so spring tends to come a bit later, but we were lucky. We found trilliums. There were just a few, but like children of spring break, we're seeing signs of spring.	The forest floor
A trillium	Another trillium
Yet another trillium	View from the Devil's Punchbowl
Rock flowers	More rock flowers
Most of the trail is a road now, but there are a few bits of the old hiking trail preserved.	More of the old trail
Toad lily	Mount Storm King dominating the lake
Clouds and snow in the mountains	Rock garden
More rock flowers	Sedums
One of the little side streams	Another little side stream

Keywords: lake crescent, spring, spruce railroad, trillium

04/02 - Elwha to Altair - Early Spring Flower Edition Spring has been with us for over a week now, so we've been out checking for trilliums. They often show up along the Elwha on the trail detour section that runs behind the old campground and is the only land route from Madison Falls to the rest of Olympic Hot Springs Road. The river had a wild winter. There was a whole new pattern of trees and drift logs lining the river. Some sections were more accessible than last year. Some were less. A great chunk, the base of a fallen tree, had torn from the hillside. This made the trail a bit tricky to follow, but all the action had opened up new river views. Spring is definitely here. We saw trilliums, fawn lilies, toad lilies, violets and many other early bloomers. Even better, the mules are back in town. The mule camp was deserted when we headed out, but there were mules waiting for us on our return.	The fawn lilies are back.
More flowers	A wild orchid
More fawn lilies	Another fawn lily
Trilliums, too	Lots of fawn lilies
The striped leaf is a fawn lily leaf	Yet another fawn lily
Toad lilies, for variety	A glimpse of the Elwha
A trillium	The river lined with fallen, drifted logs
Another view of the river	The Elwha from down close
More drift logs along the Elwha	Trail work
A mountain peak	A mountain cloud
More of the trail	Fawn lilies again
A cooperative caterpillar	The mules are back in town.

Keywords: elwha, spring, trillium, winter

The Kaleberg Journal - March 2024

03/31 - Dungeness Spit at a Low Tide There was a low tide at the Dungeness Spit. Rather than take the usual paved trail from the entry kiosk to the spit, we took the alternative, slightly longer, primitive trail. Everything was lush and green, and even better, we spotted a woodpecker and a fair number of trilliums. The spit itself was wide at low tide. There was less driftwood than some years, and most of the walking was on wet sand with some rocky areas here and there. We walked about about a mile and a half, all the while enjoying the ocean view on this magical spit of sand that juts out into the strait. We could see the mountains and clouds behind us as we headed out.	The primitive trail to the Dungeness Spit
Along the trail	Spring greenery
More along the trail	Can you guess?
A woodpecker	A closer view
Down on the spit proper	The view out to sea
Sand and sky	More along the spit
More clouds and driftwood	Two ducks
Cloudscape	The mountains behind
More of those mountains	The Olympic Mountains again
Driftwood below	Back in the forest
A trillium	More forest
Another trillium	More trilliums

Keywords: dungeness spit, trillium

03/22 - University of Washington Cherry Blossoms It was a rainy day in Seattle when we made our to the University of Washington to see this year's cherry blossoms. We had been following on the webcam, and the flowers seemed to be approaching their peek. The rain may have thinned the crowd a bit. If nothing else, it discouraged picnickers. Still, there was a good crowd, and the flowers were in full bloom and stunning. We wandered the quad admiring this harbinger of warmer weather.	Our first view
A magnolia joining the fun	Another view
Across the way	Cauliflory
Flowers growing from the trunk	We don't really need all these captions.
	Another flowering plant with a wonderful scent

Keywords: flowers, seattle, weather