Buffy:
late Sept is the most likly to have good weather here, so good choice.
Re time and details: see my responses to the thread "Road Trip Directions for Oregon & Washington".

You have plenty of time if you are concentrating only on the OPN and Rainier.

Depending how much time you spend on Rainier you may or may not get to the coast, but plenty of motels near Olympia where you won't need reservations. (If I were there, I'd spend 2 nights,and a full day at Rainier, but that's because I like hiking the Alpine areas.) At the most, you'd probably only have time to get to Ocean Beach (many good places there you wouldn't need reservations except on holidays). At any rate, I'd stay only near Olympia or Ocean Shores or near Moclips ... not inbetweeen. At Ocean Crest near Moclips I'd try to get reservations if wanted there, place we like, but expensive.

There aren't a whole lot of good motels between Aberdeen and Port Angeles. Going north on US 101 from Aberdeen: I don't know of any near Humptulips I'd stay at.
Next north: Lake Quinault Lodge .. national park type place on lake (far from Ocean) ... national park type place, OK I guess, use reservations ... Google their website.
Next north is back on coast: Queets. dunno... I'm not aware of nice place. From Queets to Ruby Beach 101 is along a spectacularly beautiful coast.
Next north: Kalaloch is fairly nice, national park place, expensive for what you get, 2 star, need reservations. Google their website
Next north: Ruby Beach: dunno ... maybe, but I'm not aware of nice place to stay.
Then US 101 heads back inland.
Next north: Forks ... logging town struggling to survive. A few motels, some I wouldn't stay at, others I would ... no reservations needed
Out on the ocean west of Forks is La Push ... beautiful area, but don't know if there is a decent motel.
Clallan Bay and Neah Bay, near the tip of the peninsula. Beautiful country .. I've hiked and camped, but no nothing about the nondescript cluster of inexpensive motels .. though so many go there to fish there must be something ... dunno
Next north, headed east, Lake Crescent Lodge ... good 3 star national park londge, need reservations.
Next: Port Angeles .. big town, lots of motels, don't need reservations.
The whole trip between Aberdeen and Port Angeles is easily driven in a day ... but you'd want to spend more time depending onm your interests.
Beaches
Rain forest (The Queets and Hoh Valleys are both great fore that.
Sol Duc Hotsprings was always nice when I was backcountry hiking in ONP.
Next East: Sequim ... warmest sunniest spot in Western Washigton (even though its not far to the rain forests to the SW) Lots of good motels. Retiree mecca. Dungenous Spit nearby is worth stopping at ... sandy and marine life.
Port Townsend is to the NE ... popular bed and breakfast and weekend place.

I've lived in Seattle 20+ yrs, have been to the Olympics a lot, but strangely, never stayed between north of Moclips or south of Port Angeles except for camping. So others may have better info.

Rereading my 3rd paragraph above, beginning "Depending how much time" ... and ending "...like, but expensive" I think I should clarify.

That whole paragraph relates to your thought re staying overnight near Rainier, then the next day driving up aqnd seeing it, then racing to the coast.

Buffy

By now you have probably made your plans but if you are still ?? I will share another recommendation. My husband and I have just returned from an 8 night 7 day trip to ONP. We are fit and active(but by no means jocks) seniors who have visited several NPs and of all this one has stolen our hearts forever. In fact I can't wait to do it again.

We flew to Seattle, collected the rental car, and drove straight to Port Angeles for the week. We rented a house and this worked very well. We took day trips from PA via Victoria Express(passenger only) to San Juan Is and to Victoria (Buchart Gardens specifically). This broke up the week very comfortably. If i were to be in the area only 5 days I would skip San Juan Is entirely but keep Victoria.

If you are not an outdoors person you this may not appeal to you, however, because our greatest pleasure was getting out into the Park using their Easy Day Hikes guide which is available online as well as the Falcon guide available in the Visitors Center. We did commit to some driving in order to do what we wanted to do but if you divide it up you won't be too tired and you will get to see/do a lot.

Good luck--wbnc

wbnc - so happy you posted regarding your recent trip. As of right now, I have lodging reservations but as far as what to do on what day, that's all up in the air and I think hubby and I will just play it by ear once we get there. Lodging is as follows: 1st night in Pt Angeles (Best Western), 2nd/3rd nights at the Lake Crescent Lodge, 4th night at Lake Quinault Lodge, 5th night in Ocean Shores, and our last night near SeaTac (flight leaves very early the next morning). Since you were based out of Pt. Angeles - what kind of day trips did you take and what day hikes did you do? If you plan on posting a trip report (here or anywhere else), would you please let me know? As far as Victoria goes, I think I've decided against it, as we just don't have enough time and I'd rather spend 5 days in ONP going at a leisurely pace than trying to pack too much into our short trip. Thanks again!

Buffy

You have done a good job with so few days to work with and I hope you will have a great time. We want to return for a reprise before too many more years elapse and next time we will go in Sept. so--please post how it all went.

To answer your questions. You should certainly visit the PA Visitor's Center en route up to Hurricane Ridge and see the intro film on the Park. Hurricane Ridge has some nice easy loop hikes that are very accessible from their Visitor's Center. We didn't take any because in June all were still snowed out but this won't be the case in Sept. The PA Visitor's center will provide handouts and descriptions for each hike.

2 other easy yet beautiful hikes are from the Crescent Lake Lodge area. Marymere Falls is one and Sol Duc Falls farther W on 101 is another. Both can be done in one morning (if you start early). Either is a beautiful hike and Marymere is the shorter. It can be reached starting from the Lodge if you prefer to limit yourself to only one.

Since your husband's only wish is to see the ocean you definitely mustn't miss the coastal beaches--which to us were the most beautiful of all the areas we visited. Since you are going on to Lake Quinault Lodge you can stop off at Ruby Beach and explore as much of that as you feel like. Another place we wouldn't have missed is further NW--Cape Flattery and the Makah Museum--but this will involve a little more driving than you may want to do. However it was the highlight of our trip and we wouldn't have missed it for anything. It is a nice boardwalk trail down to the overlooks that are awesome in their beauty and will take "seeing the ocean" to a whole different plane! :)

We found PA to be a diner's disappointment but 2 places that we liked were Tendy's Chinese and The Crab House. Another that was recommended (but we didn't try)was Bella Italia . Crescent lake Lodge has delicious food.

Good luck!

Thank you wbnc for replying! Thank for the suggestion of Cape Flattery. I will be reading more about it (I googled it) as it's the first I've heard of it!

My husband and I are also planning a trip to Seattle - September 27th through October 4th. Can anyone give me an idea on what kind of weather we should expect during that time? Has the rainy season started yet?
thanks!

Daytime temps in the 50s and 60s, probably--decent early fall weather as a rule. The rains don't usually start in earnest until mid-October but there are always exceptions to that ;-). Come prepared and you'll be fine.

Thanks for the quick response Wanderer! I love cool weather - sounds perfect!

also just did a trip to Seattle and the OP. we only had 2 nights in Port Angeles and it was not enough. i think with the number of nights you have planned you will be able to see what you want to see. Take one day and make the drive to the coast, we didn't' have time but i'm already thinking about a return trip someday.
When we drove up to Hurricane Ridge the cloud cover was so thick at times you couldn't even see past the car, but when we got to the top it was clear. it's just breathtaking. Like another poster said stop at the PA visitors center, they have good information there.
had a very nice lunch at Lake Crescent Lodge on July 4. I think you will enjoy the stay there.
we also did the hike to Marymere Falls.It's a fairly easy hike and one you can walk to right from the lodge.
I found the weather changed a lot from moment to moment last week. i do not know if this is typical or not, so i would bring layers.
I think you will have a wonderful trip it's such a beautiful part of the country.

joeyi - thanks for your mini trip report! We are definitely going to do a little bit of everything, including the coast. That is a must do since my hubby and I are big fans of the ocean (being from the Midwest and never seeing it!)

i've started a trip report if you're interested in it. i haven't gotten to the ONP part yet but i did post a photo link and you could see some of the park.
We saw the most beautiful wild flowers up there.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35142269

LOVE your pics! Thanks again for your trip report!

bm