Winter Camping in Olympic National Park
finally caught my west coast sunset!
Lately life has been chaotic and a little aimless, so Andy and I did what all people do when they hit a slump— packed up the car to go winter camping.
The slump has been mostly West Coast related. Truth is, we don’t love it out here. When we moved to Washington, we thought it we would connect with a lot of people like us, working guiding jobs and freelancing. We thought we would have the great access to the outdoors that Washington State seems to tout.
Me, enjoying a West Coast sunset and modeling some of my handknits for the latest shop update, live today at 12 central!
In practice, the access to the outdoors is a few hours drive from from most of the urban areas, very similar to the drive of any given Midwest city to the the nearest National Lakeshores. Then there’s the crowds— the mountains are beautiful for the three months of the year they’re readily accessible, but you will not find a trail to yourself the same way you might in the Midwest North. To be totally honest, I don’t find the alpine lakes or mountains inherently more beautiful than the land around Lake Superior or Lake Michigan.
Morever, I find the Pacific Northwest culture to be cold and confusing compared to the warmth and friendliness of the Midwest. In the midwest, it feels like everyone is always looking out for each other; here, it feels like it’s every man for themselves.
There’s not necessarily anything wrong with that, but I personally find it to be off-putting.
Adjusting has been difficult, and we found ourselves with some spare time on our hands, so we packed the car and headed to the coast. Andy and I both sea kayak guide and expedition kayak in the summers, so we have a true abundance of gear, and we have a lot of leftover pre-prepped meals and camp fuel from expedition paddling. The goal was to spend as little as possible on the whole trip.
In three days we kept it under $250, spending $48 on the campsite, $120 on gas, and $50 on additional food along the way. Not too shabby!
for my updated guide to visiting Olympic National Park on a budget, click here!
Winter Camping in Olympic National Park
This was pretty much a last minute trip with very little planning involved. The last time Andy and I visited Olympic it was August. We were in the middle of peak sea kayak guiding season and took a four-day break to leave San Juan Island for the first time in months. It was a fun trip, but we were socked-in by wildfire smoke and so burnt out on the summer in general. This was our one fun trip for the whole summer so there was a lot of pressure to have a good time.
This trip we planned two days before, threw our gear in the car, and just went.
Camping at Kalaloch Campground
Camping at Kalaloch Campground in Olympic National Park is open year-round and first-come first-serve in the winter. The fees are $24 per night and there are several ocean-view sites and ocean access.
For us, the weather was pretty perfect. It didn’t rain, though being that close to the ocean it was extremely damp and gear got wet, like truly wet, just sitting on the table. Nights were in the low 30s, just below freezing, and daytime highs were in the low 50s.
Gear wise, I used an insulated sleeping pad (first time using the Nemo Tensor!), down sleeping bag, down pullover puffy with a hood. I’ve had the Stio Pinion Down Pullover (gifted/affiliate) for three years and the pullover style with a quarter zip seems to reduce heat loss. I also wore a pair of synthetic baselayer pants and fleece pants over the top, also from Stio, to sleep in. Overall I like Stio gear, but the only pieces of gear I would truly recommend splurging on are the down pullover and the fleece pants.
I also recommend a hot water bottle by your feet and a merino wool neck gaiter to cover your nose (I knit my own!) for extra warmth.
One of my favorite camping hacks to make it a no-dishes experience is packing tortillas. Making eggs and hash browns for breakfast? Now it’s a breakfast burrito. Lentils and rice, rice stir fry, quinoa bowls? Anything can become a burrito, and now there’s no dish.
The dirty dishes that we did create got thrown in the empty tortilla bag to become a later problem (aka I am washing them right now as you read this).
Hiking in the Hoh Rainforest
Last time Andy & I visited the Hoh Rainforest it was pretty crowded. We only hiked the Hall of Mosses Trail and moved on from there. Even with just that short experience, the Hoh Rainforest is extremely cool. It feels like you’re fully experiencing an ecosystem.
This time we hiked a portion of the Hoh River Trail and the Spruce Trail. It was really beautiful, and we saw some truly incredible trees. We also saw tons of Elk throughout the Olympic Peninsula. In August we hadn’t seen any, so it was super cool to see them all over like we did this time of year. I didn’t manage to snag any good photos, but that’s okay.
Sunset on Ruby Beach
I think I built up the West Coast in my mind a little bit. I grew up on ideas of how beautiful it was out here, how chill. I always wanted to see the Pacific, to watch a sunset over the open ocean.
Sure, I paddled on the Pacific all summer two summers in a row technically, but the Salish Sea is not the open Pacific, and I had never seen that sea stack sunset with crashing waves before.
The second night in Olympic, Andy and I packed a bag with coffee and snacks (that four pm sunsets means sunset coffee, right?) and headed to Ruby Beach. Honestly it was the most incredible sunset of my life, not because the sunset itself was so spectacular— I’ve seen wilder on Lake Superior in the winter for sure— but because the moment just felt… perfect.
We talked about the fabled “green flash” as the sun sank and as it started to sink before the horizon we paused and watched.
“I think I kind of saw it!” Andy said.
“I think so too,” I agreed. It didn’t show up on my camera, but it looked just a little green to the naked eye.
Hiking the Waterfalls
We packed up in the morning and headed out to chase waterfalls on the way home! First stop was Sol Duc Falls— this was a quick and easy, less than two mile round trip hike to a triple-tiered waterfall. Fresh frost accompanied us the whole way up and it was really beautiful in general. I definitely recommend this hike for anyone visiting Olympic.
The second waterfall we checked out was Marymere Falls near Lake Crescent, another less than two mile hike. Marymere Falls is pretty, but both Andy and I definitely found Sol Duc more impressive, and it decidedly had more to do with the trail itself than the waterfall. Sol Duc Falls feels more remote and more like a National Park hiking trail, worthy of the hype. Marymere is very pretty, but it was crowded even on a weekday in November. It was a big, wide trail leading to the falls, and altogether (in Andy’s words not mine) felt more like a roadside attraction than a National Park.
In hindsight, I probably would’ve skipped Marymere in favor of getting home sooner.
Other things I’ve been up to lately…
My big project for the past few weeks has been updating my handknits shop! The last batch of handknit Nordic mittens, neck gaiters, hats, and more goes live today at noon central time. Because everything is handmade by me, stock is extremely limited. As always, you can use the code NEWSLETTER20 for 20% off my entire shop!
Check out the updated guide to visiting Olympic National Park on a budget!
Did you miss last weeks guest writer post? Go backpacking in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains with guest writer Lea Cicchiello.
Looking for ways to find outdoor gear on a budget? Check out 15 Tips for Scoring Used Outdoor Gear
Thanks so much for reading! Content like this little newsletter and the free resources linked above are made possible with the support of paying subscribers. To help support the creation of totally free outdoor resources, consider becoming a paying subscriber of Hello Stranger below.
Ah, the “Seattle freeze.” I grew up in the PNW and didn’t realize how unfriendly we all were until I started traveling/living in different places. I couldn’t get over how nice everyone in the Midwest and South were.
I’m sorry 😢
Maddy! I’m in Seattle (for a couple more weeks anyway; I’m nomadic but come back here often) and just camped in the Hoh rainforest last month. It’s magic truly.
And your photos are sooo good!
I get what you mean about Seattle and the fens for yourself vibe. I’ve been coming back here for years, and I think it’s become a little harder to break into than it used to be. I, for one, welcome you here warmly.