Best 5-night Itinerary for Mt. Rainier and Olympic N.P.
 

We're travelling to the Pacific NW next August (with our two teenagers)and will have 5 nights to see Mt. Rainier and Olympic National Park before we circle back to the airport. We are spending the first night after arrival in Seattle before heading to Rainier. Our kids like to hike. What would be the best itinerary of 5 nights to see the most and stay where there are more hiking opportunities and more that would interest teenagers? Thanks!

My personal opinion (and there are those with opposite views) is that Mt. Rainier doesn't have as much to offer as Olympic NP, due mainly to ONP's size and diversity, rather than anythink lacking in Mt Rainier.

In August there will be plenty of opportunities for Alpine country hiking at Mt. Rainier (go to the NPS website for trail info) but there will be similar opportunities in the mountainous parts of ONP too, with the advantage that there will also be lowland opportunities, beaches, rainforests, lakes, and other things in ONP that Mt Rainier can't offer. Thus IMO ONP gives more "bang for the buck" in your limited time.

So that said, I'd spend one night at Mt. Rainier, do an afternoon and/or early morning hike, then head out to the coast and north on US 101 to somewhere around Quinault, for two nights to see the rainforests (excellent hikes in the Quinault and Hoh valleys) and beaches (beach hikes around Ruby Beach and La Push, for instance.) Then head north around the top of the Olympic Peninsula to Lake Crescent or Port Angeles, for more exploring of the north slope of the Olympic Mountains - Sol Duc valley (hotsprings), Lake Crescent itself, Hurricane Ridge, the Dungeness Spit, things like that. Excellent high country hiking at Hurricane Ridge, with fewer people than at Mt. Rainier, plus a much wider range of accommodation nearby than at Mt. Rainier. If you get pooped of Ms. Nature, hop on the passenger ferry at Port Angeles for a daytrip to Victoria - plenty right in the downtown area for two teens as well as their parents, then back to the US in the evening. Alternatively, there are whale chasing operations aplenty at Victoria, although I personally think people should leave the poor things alone.

Two nights up there, then an easy 2-3 hour drive+ferry back into Seattle, buh-bye.

Both places have so much for hiking. I agree that ONP has more diversity, but Mt. Rainier is definitely worthy of more than a short hike. We are a backpacking/climbing family though, so any mountain is good in our eyes, lol! A great website for specific hikes and especially out of the way trails is www.nwhikers.net.

We have taken our kids backpacking at both areas and love them both...they are just very different. If this were my trip I would do 2 nights at Mt. Rainier and then 3 over in the Olympics.

A very easy hike that is popular is the Cape Alava/Sand Point trail by Lake Ozette. It is a triangle basically...over boardwalks through the rainforest, then along the beach (you must work around high tides though!) and then back through the rainforest. It is 9 miles and easy and very scenic. Kids seem to love this hike as there are petroglyphs on rocks along the beach.

What great suggestions! To mms: Would you spend 2 nights near Lake Quinault and 1 at Lake Crescent, or the other way around? It seems like there might be more to do as far as hikes in the northern part of ONP, but I've never been there, so it's hard for me to visualize.

Anne--Oh that is a toss up! Both areas have a lot of good hiking. I sat here for quite a while trying to decide if one is better than the other and honestly I could not make a decision, lol!

I'm with Gardyloo on this one. Olympic is like four or five parks in one.The Hoh Rain forest and the beaches (with tide pools full of starfish and anemone) especially blew me away. While Mt Rainier itself was very impressive, you can look at it for a few hours & then go. Plus that park is WAY more crowded than Olympic.

Mt. Rainier gets very busy around the Paradise area...but like any good hiking you need to explore more areas. Then again, if I don't tell people about it then there is more privacy for me:)