Traveling to Seattle and visiting Olympic National Forest
 

My husband and I are traveling to the Pacific Northwest for the first time. We want to see Seattle and the Olympic National Forest. We are staying in Seattle but are going to drive to the Olympic. We are interested in a little hiking and seeing Ruby Beach, Crescent Lake and if there is time Hoh Rainforest. We will only be there 1-2 days so we want to squeeze in as much as possible. Should we drive from Seattle to Olympic or take the ferry? Which is quicker? And what destinations should we visit in which order to make good use of our time?

You take the ferry across to the Olympic peninsula. Driving would be longer. The area is quite large. Just going from Seattle to Hurricane Ridge will take 3.5 hours according to Google maps, and these map programs tend to be optimistic about the driving time. Going to the rain forest on the western side of the Olympic NP will take 4.5 hours going around the national park from the south.

Do you mean Olympic National PARK? If so, I think you are going to want to spend the night(or a couple of nights) in Olympic. We spent 3 nights there a couple of years ago and thought it was great.

What month are you going?
We normally take pretty difficult long hikes. At Olympic NP we did only short and easy as those seemed to offer a lot and were the ones we wanted to do.
Here were the highlights for us. And in order of what we like the best.
Hoh Rain Forest
Sol Duc Falls
Rialto Beach/Hole in the Wall--tidepooling here too
Hurricane Ridge-Hurricane HillTrail
Marymere Falls
Ruby Beach
Kalaloch
Quinault
Largest Spruce Tree near Quinault
I enjoyed the hot springs at Sol Duc, my wife didn't.
We spent one night at Sol Duc(cabin), Kalaloch(right on the ocean), Quinault. Enjoyed a meal at each of those and also had a nice meal at Crescent Lake Lodge.

Seattle food that we liked
Pike Market- buying food as you go along-seafood chowder best ever
Cafe Vivace- for coffee
Salumi-awesome
Dahlia Bakery-breakfast
Top Pot Doughnuts
and oddly enough one of the best fish dishes I've ever had was at Anthony's in the airport. It was in August and they were featuring Halibut with fresh peaches with 2 kinds of sauces on it.

Here is a link to our trip report.
http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...e-watching.cfm

Thank you so much for the input! We will be going next month, in February. How long does it take on the ferry?

Also, what areas are close enough to each other that we could see in a day? We plan to see Lake Crescent and Ruby Beach in a day, but are there any other great sites close by that we could squeeze into a day?

With the short days in February, the inability to visit Hurricane Ridge, and the likelihood of heavy rain elsewhere, I'd keep to the south and west portions of Olympic NP. Drive to Lake Quinault via Olympia - around 3 hours, then day trip up to Ruby Beach and if time allows, the Hoh River Valley, then back to Quinault and return. Lake Quinault Lodge is a lovely old and cozy place in the winter and the Lake itself is lovely in the mist. The Quinault Valley Rain Forest is comparable to Hoh, but closer.

You <i>could</i> return to Seattle via Port Angeles and the Bainbridge Island ferry, but from Quinault you're looking at 5+ hours in that direction.

http://www.olympicnationalparks.com/...ult-lodge.aspx

Gardyloo that was very helpful! Thank you!