The Olympic Peninsula and Washington Coast
We’ve compiled the best of the best in The Olympic Peninsula and Washington Coast - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in The Olympic Peninsula and Washington Coast - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
The cape and its treacherous neighboring sandbar—named in 1788 by Captain John Meares, an English fur trader who had been unable to find the Northwest Passage—has been the scourge of sailors since the 1800s, hence its reputation as the graveyard of the Pacific. More than 250 ships have sunk after running aground on its ever-shifting sands. Now a 2,023-acre state park contained within the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park (which also has sections just across the Columbia River in Oregon), this dramatic cape with sheer sea cliffs and great stands of conifer forest was an active military installation until 1957. Emplacements for the guns that once guarded the Columbia's mouth remain, some of them hidden by dense vegetation. Some 8 miles of trails lead to stunning beaches, and opportunities to spy eagles, whales, sea lions, seat otters, and other wildlife abound. There are three lightkeepers' residences, dozens of campsites, several yurts, and three cabins available for rent. Exhibits at the park's free Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, which sits atop a 200-foot cliff with magnificent views, trace the cape's human and natural history. A more comprehensive permanent exhibit in the center, which costs $5 to enter, tells the tale of the duo's 8,000-mile round-trip expedition. Displays chronicle the Corps of Discovery, which arrived at Cape Disappointment in 1805. A ½-mile-long path from the center leads to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. Built in 1856, it's the oldest lighthouse on the West Coast that's still in use, and one of two lighthouses in the park, the other being North Head.
With restored Victorian officers' houses and pre–World War I-era bunkers, this fascinating 432-acre park served as the filming location for the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman. Built on Point Wilson in 1896 to guard the mouth of Puget Sound, the old fort provides myriad outdoor and cultural activities for kids and adults. A sandy beach leads to the graceful 1913 Point Wilson Lighthouse. Memory's Vault, a series of pillars hidden in the hill above the inlet, features inscriptions of works from local poet Sam Hamill. Touch tanks at Port Townsend Marine Science Center on the pier offer an up-close look at sea anemones and other underwater life. Kayak tours and rentals are also available. The fort also hosts music festivals in an old military balloon-hangar-turned-performing-arts-pavilion and exhibits in an artillery museum. Many of the old buildings can now be booked as overnight accommodations, and there are a couple of excellent dining options in the park: Reveille at the Commons serves breakfast, lunch, and coffee, and Taps at the Guardhouse is known for lunch, happy hour, and early dinners.
Thousands of Makah art pieces and artifacts, many eons old, fill a space done in low lights and rich timbers and divided into an easy route of intriguing exhibits. The centerpiece is a full-size cedar longhouse, complete with handwoven baskets, fur skins, cattail wool, grass mats on the bed planks, and a background of tribal music. Another section houses full-size whaling and seal-hunting canoes and weapons. Other areas show games, clothing, crafts, and relics from the ancient Ozette Village mudslide. The small shop stocks a collection of locally made art pieces, books, and crafts; plan to spend some time looking around.
Port Townsend is one of only three Victorian-era seaports on the register of National Historic Sites, and you can learn all about it at this handsome building on the waterfront. It's the center of operations for the Wooden Boat Foundation, which stages the annual Wooden Boat Festival each September. The center has interactive exhibits, hands-on sailing instruction, boatbuilding workshops, a wood shop, and a pilot house where you can test navigational tools. You can launch a kayak or watch sloops and schooners gliding along the bay from the boardwalk, pier, and beach that fronts the buildings. There's also an excellent gift shop, The Chandlery, with a coffee bar.
The centerpiece of this 560-acre beach park is a paved promenade, sometimes called the Dunes Trail, that winds along the sandy beach north from the dunes near Grays Harbor Lighthouse, before exiting the park and curving along Half Moon Bay to the Westport Viewing Tower at the end of Westhaven Drive. The trail runs 2½ miles total, about half of it through the park, which is popular for beachcombing, bird-watching, and clamming, and has several picnic tables overlooking the sea. There's parking near downtown at the end of Jetty Haul Road and at the park's main entrance, at the end of West Ocean Avenue. Amenities: parking; toilets. Best for: sunrise; sunset; walking
Check out the 17-foot-tall Destruction Island Lens, a lighthouse beacon that was built in 1888 and weighs almost 6 tons, at this engaging maritime museum set inside a former Coast Guard station. It's filled with historic photos, equipment, clothing, and other relics from the life-saving service and artifacts related the area's local fishing, logging, and cranberry farming industries. The Westport South Beach Historical Society also operates the octagonal 1898 Grays Harbor Lighthouse, which at 107 feet is the tallest on the Washington coast. It's 2 miles south of the museum and adjacent to Westport Light State Park. Visiting the base is free; it costs extra to climb the 135 steps to the top.
Headquartered about 11 miles north of downtown Ilwaco on U.S. 101, this 11,000-acre refuge comprises three main units: the largest is Long Island, an estuarine island with old-growth forest that's reached by kayak or canoe, most easily from the boat ramp across from the headquarters office. Accessed from Sandridge Road and 67th Place less than 2 miles east of the town of Long Beach, the South Bay unit comprises wetlands and marshes inhabited by bear, elk, bobcats, and all sorts of birds. Finally, the Leadbetter Point Unit, which adjoins Leadbetter State Park and is at the north end of the Long Beach Peninsula, 3 miles beyond Oysterville, is a great spot for bird-watching. Black brants, sandpipers, turnstones, yellowlegs, sanderlings, and knots are among the more than 100 species biologists have identified here. The dune area at the very end of the point is closed from March to September to protect the nesting snowy plover. From the parking lot, a ½-mile-long paved wheelchair-accessible path leads to the ocean, and a 2½-mile loop trail winds through the dunes along the ocean and Willapa Bay. Several trails along the loop lead to isolated patches of coastline. These trails flood in winter, often becoming impassable swamps, so pay attention to the warning signs.
The small museum has canoes from local tribes, as well as photographs that document Aberdeen's logging and shipping industries and exhibits portraying an old blacksmith shop and general store.
A lovely gazebo sits in the center of this gem of a city park, perched atop a bluff overlooking Admiralty Inlet. The six well-maintained acres are perfect for picnicking and encompass a pond, a footbridge, a playground, and a whimsical, trellis-covered pathway that teems with blooms in spring. The Port Townsend Summer Band performs concerts here (and at nearby Fort Worden). Access the sliver of beach below via a short footpath.
The former site of a Native American fishing village, where eagles and osprey can be found feeding on the sand, attracts beachcombers, fishers, and divers. The Pillar Point Fishing Camp to the east has campsites and a boat ramp. Dress warmly: Pysht Bay takes its name from a S'Klallam term meaning "where the wind blows from all directions." Amenities: toilets. Best for: walking; solitude; sunset.
A great stormy-day educational spot for families, the center highlights the seaside environment, local history, and Native American traditions. Displays include tsunami debris, artifacts from the founding of the city, and Native American basketry. Reproduction seabirds, whale bones, and a vast shell collection let you examine the shoreline wildlife up close.
Dioramas and miniatures of Long Beach towns illustrate the history of southwestern Washington, and other displays cover Native Americans; the influx of traders, missionaries, and pioneers; and the contemporary workers of the fishing, agriculture, and forest industries. The original Ilwaco Freight Depot and a Pullman car from the Clamshell Railroad highlight rail history.
Here, visitors can learn about more than a century of cranberry cultivation in this area, take a self-guided walking tour through the bogs, try some cranberry tea, and buy cranberry products to take home.
Created to memorialize Lewis and Clark's explorations here in 1805–06, the 8½-mile Discovery Trail traces the explorers' moccasin steps from Ilwaco to north Long Beach, overlooking sandy dunes and beachfront. Access the trail from the beach parking lots on Sid Snyder Drive or Bolstad Street in Long Beach. Parking is also available at the Beard's Hollow lot in Cape Disappointment State Park.
Set high along the bay-side bluffs, the tower is recognizable by its pyramid shape and red paint job. Built in 1890 to hold a 1,500-pound brass alarm bell, the 75-foot wooden structure was once the key alert center for local volunteer firemen. A century later it's considered one of the state's most valuable historic structures. Reach the tower by climbing the steep set of stairs behind Haller Fountain at the end of Taylor Street. The tenth-of-an-acre plot also holds a park bench and five parking spots.
This 618-acre park, part of the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, blends so well into a rocky knob overlooking the river that it's all but invisible from land or water (U.S. 101 passes underneath, via a tunnel). The turn-of-the-20th-century military buildings offer great views of the river's mouth. In spring the slopes are fragrant with wildflowers, and there are 2 miles of hiking trails to explore the grounds. The interpretive center has displays on barracks life and Chinook Indian culture. Two historic buildings on the property are available for overnight rentals.
This fort, along with Fort Worden in Port Townsend and Fort Casey on Whidbey Island, was constructed in 1897 as part of an "Iron Triangle" of defense for Puget Sound. Take in sweeping views of Whidbey Island's magnificent bluffs and Port Townsend's Victorian skyline from what is now a 784-acre park perched at the northern tip of Marrowstone Island. Surrounded by saltwater on three sides, Fort Flagler served as a military training center through the world wars, and still has old gun emplacements overlooking its rocky, log- and driftwood-strewn beaches. The park has RV and tent camping, 3½ miles of coastline, and 5 miles of hiking and biking trails. Island inlets are great for paddling around; you can rent canoes and kayaks—and stock up on picnic items—at Nordland General Store (360/385–0777), the island's only grocery store.
The enormous, sandstone courthouse seems exceptionally grand for such a small town, but it was entirely appropriate at the time it was built, between 1909 and 1912, when Montesano was a prosperous railroad boomtown. Its clock tower soars above the classical, pillared entrance. The lobby has a marble staircase flanked by murals depicting Robert Gray in 1792, discovering the harbor that bears his name, and Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens negotiating with Native Americans at Cosmopolis in 1855. The murals inaccurately depict native people wearing feather headdresses and standing in front of tepees (neither was used by the local Chehalis). Information packets for self-guided tours around town are available in the room to the right of the Commissioner's Office.
In fall and spring, this refuge, established in 1990, is a perfect place to observe the multitude of migrating shorebirds that visit the area. Keep your binoculars handy as you stroll along the 1,800-foot-long boardwalk, and make sure to stop at the visitor center's shop and bookstore.
You can hit the trails on foot or atop a horse in this 533-acre estuarial park stretching more than a mile along both the Pacific Ocean and the Copalis River. A boardwalk crosses low dunes to the broad, flat beach. The Copalis Spit section of the park is a designated wildlife refuge for thousands of snowy plovers and other birdlife. Favorite activities include picnicking, bird-watching, mountain biking, fishing, clamming, kite flying, and beachcombing.
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