<We are considering a stay at Salish and drive into Seattle vs pay for parking there>

Sure, staying at Salish would be wonderful, it's a lovely lodge, but it's not going to save you any money over a less expensive hotel downtown along with paying for the parking.

Olympic National Park is huge, distance from Seattle depends exactly where you are going within it.

Thanks Suze -
It's our anniversary so Salish seemed nice with a drive in to Seattle, ferry ride etc.
Parking is free at Salish anyway but hotels in Seattle it ran $40/night.
Maybe it is better to stay at Cedarbrook and have the shuttles, hard to say....guess we can return the car along the way! Thanks!

The road to Hurricane Ridge is 85 miles from Seattle. Here is a possible itinerary including the Olympic Peninsula and Mt Rainier: Hurricane Ridge, Lake Crescent (Marymere Falls), Hoh Rain Forest, Ruby Beach, Lake Quinault, Mt Rainier, Seattle.

HTtY

Nice!

Ok - here is the plan so far:
Arrive on a thurs am - drive to Paradise Lodge/Mt Rainier
Thurs afternoon - eat/take drive to short hikes/sites
Friday - Hike Skyline trail - fit in anything else we can?
Saturday - check out, and drive to Sunrise area (if makes sense), do a short hike, eat at top of mountain
Saturday afternoon/evening - depart and head to Cedarwood Lodge/Seattle
Find a place to eat ...IF Snoqualmie/Salish can make sense on way to Seattle/Cedarwood stop there?
Sunday - If we CAN fit it in, go check out Snoqualmie Falls then drive into Seattle, park and walk.
Sunday eve - take Bainbridge-Seattle ferry back
Hurricane Ridge sounds great too, but we would have to choose....seattle and ferry vs Ridge?

Welcome feedback and suggestions for wardrobe/weather early September.

Thanks!

We are back and we did it all, less the ferry. Was too gloomy a day for that.
Seattle was ok but much preferred the mountains/nature as we are from a big city.
Paradise/Sunrise were both spectacular.
Hiking around Snoqualmie also heavenly, many great trails in/around that area, to waterfalls, beautiful forests and more.
Most beautiful in our opinions was Paradise/Mt Rainier, followed by the views from Sunrise.

We loved WA state, crammed a lot in 4 days, and will return!
Thanks for your help!

Thanks for reporting back. Glad you had a good trip!

Take a look at the North Cascades and the already-mentioned Olympic Peninsula for your next trip. I'm lucky to live in Colorado near a lot of scenic beauty, and those places are still outstanding to visit in my book.