10 Day Pacific Northwest Itinerary
We had been dreaming of seeing the Pacific Northwest for years, envisioning the mossy trees of Olympic National Park, glowing with the setting sun, and sea stacks jutting out from dark blue waters, shrouded in mist. We started planning two months in advance in order to plan out our trip itinerary and book all of our campsites. We decided to visit in July - when weather is perfectly warm to tent camp in the PNW. We drove our own vehicle and camped every evening, making this trip super budget friendly.
Day 1 - Mount Rainier National Park
We started our Pacific Northwest adventure in Mount Rainier National Park, staying in the Ohanapecosh River Campground. This campground was absolutely gorgeous with giant trees, and lots of privacy from other campers. We had plenty of room for our tent as the campsites here are very generous. After checking into our campsite and setting up our tent, we started the Silver Falls hike to see the waterfall with a 60 foot drop. This short and easy hike (3 mile round trip) has a trailhead startingfrom the Ohanepecosh campground, so if you are camping there for the evening, it is very convenient.
After returning back to our campground, we drove the short distance to the trailhead for Grove of the Patriarchs, which is an easy 1.3 mile loop, where we hiked among thousand year old Douglas Firs and Western Cedar trees. One of our favorite parts of this hike was the suspension bridge leading to the grove of trees. The sun was setting soon after we ended our two hikes, and we retired to the campground for the evening.
Day 2 - Mount Rainier National Park
We had previously decided we wanted to do the Skyline Trail Loop for our second day, which is a very popular hike in Mount Rainier due the amazing views you get at Panorama Point. We parked at the Jackson Visitor Center, and found the trailhead nearby. The hike is 5.5 miles round trip, but pretty strenuous with an elevation gain of 1700 feet. It was July and we had drove from temperatures in the 90s in Iowa so we were wearing shorts and hiking boots. We soon realized that we were not prepared for this hike. Even in July, there was an abundant amount of snow on the mountain. We hiked to Panorama Point (which has amazing views), and saw that most people were in full winter gear with crampons or skis. I highly recommend checking conditions before you visit this park, to ensure you have the proper gear. The trail was not visible most of the way up to Panorama Point, although there were plenty of people and tracks in the snow to find our way. We did not have the proper gear or clothing, but we hiked it anyway, in shorts. It was a beautiful hike regardless, and we continued further up the mountain, on High Skyline Trail, before it became too cold to continue (without more clothing). This was by far our favorite hike in the park and I highly recommend it for the views alone. Once we returned to our car, we drove Hurricane Ridge for some outstanding panoramic views of the park, on our way to Cougar Rock Campground, where we stayed for the night.
Day 3 - Seattle
The next morning we packed up our tent and drove to Seattle. We took the bridge to get there, rather than taking the ferry. We spent the day drinking coffee, checking out cool neighborhoods, and eating delicious food. Our favorite places were Full Tilt Ice Cream (which had delicious vegan ice cream and old school arcade games), Unicorn (a carnival-themed bar), and Twice Told Tales (a used book store with cats - yes cats!). Capital Hill is definitely the cool neighborhood, with rainbow crosswalks and hipster vibes. It also had a mystery soda machine, where anyone could put a dollar in, and get a random soda. We both received very obscure flavors that were not necessarily good, but exciting. Unfortunately, the soda machine disappeared in 2018 as mysteriously as it arrived, in Capital Hill. We spent a considerable amount of time wandering around here before heading to the Washington Park Arboretum, which is 250 acres and just gorgeous. Also - its free! This was the only night that we had not reserved a campsite; after leaving Seattle we drove toward the coast and stayed in a campground along the way.
Day 4 - Olympic National Park
We spent the day driving and going to Second Beach and the nearby Ruby Beach, in awe of the sea stacks and driftwood. It was a cloudy and chilly day, which is on par for the PNW. We spent the night in the nearby Kalaloch Campround in the park.
Day 5 - Olympic National Park
This was the first evening that we had the same campground for two nights in a row, so we did not have to start the day with packing up our tent (which is really nice). The most frustrating thing about camping in general is having to move sites constantly and having to worry about packing everything and setting everything up every day. We started off the morning at Hall of Mosses trail, which is an easy .8 mile hike, before continuing on to Spruce Nature Trail, a 1.2 mile loop (these are part of the Hoh forest). It was beautiful and what we envisioned when we thought of Olympic National park, but the lighting was not the best. I recommend waking up early for a sunrise hike. For sunset, we headed to Kalaloch Beach (which is located next to Ruby Beach), and witnessed the sun setting behind sea stacks.
Day 6 - Olympic National Forest
The next day we drove south out of the national park, and into Olympic National Forest, which also has some beautiful hiking trails as part of the Quinault National Recreation Trail System and Lake Quinault. There was also a giant lake nearby, and we thought it would be a really nice day to spend some time at the lake, enjoying the views. We stopped at Lake Quinault Lodge to rent a two-person kayak for the day, and kayaked around the lake in the sun. We camped at one of the campgrounds near the lake (there are several nearby).
Day 7 - Portland
When we woke up the next morning, we drove to Portland to check out the city and spend the day there. We started our day at the outdoor Farmer’s Market at Portland State University. It is only open on Saturdays 8:30-2, so we were super lucky! If you get a chance to check this one out, it is definitely worth it, it has a lot of breakfast, lunch, and drink options. Afterward we walked to Powell’s City of Books (because I am obsessed with book stores), Deschutes Brewery for a beer flight (it was packed), and had pizza at Sizzle Pie. They had a killer vegan pizza and I ate the entire thing. When we arrived back to our car (parked a couple of blocks from the college), one of the windows was busted out. We were very fortunate because only a small toiletry bag was stolen (and we had EVERYTHING in the car since we had been camping). We learned that this is not uncommon for Portland, and is increasingly becoming an issue there. It taught us a valuable lesson and we definitely do things differently now when we travel. Luckily, we found an amazing window repair shop nearby, who was willing to get us in on a Saturday afternoon before they closed. After that, I felt I had enough of Portland for the time being, and we moved on. That evening we stayed at Viento State Park Campground, in the National Scenic Area of the Columbia River Gorge.
Day 8 - Columbia River Gorge
We spent the entire day in the in the Columbia River Gorge, which is home to more than 90 waterfalls on the Oregon side of the gorge. We drove down Columbia River Historic Highway to start our waterfall tour - which is known as the “Waterfall Corridor”. Starting May 24th 2022, Oregon will be using Timed Use Permits, to help decrease congestion in this very popular area. Visit their website here, to plan ahead before your visit. More information regarding the Columbia River Gorge can be found on the columbiarivergorge website. This was definitely one of our favorite days of the trip, as we saw so many beautiful waterfalls in the span of one day. We spent the night again in the Viento State Park Campground, located in the Columbia River Gorge.
Day 9 & 10 - Columbia River Gorge and Crater Lake National Park
Crater Lake National Park is a 5-6 hour drive from the Columbia River Gorge. You could easily spend another day or half day hiking to view more waterfalls. Instead, we decided to drive to Crater Lake National Park, located in southern Oregon. We were not able to drive around the entire perimeter of the national park, as the road was still blocked by snow. We spent some time watching people jump into the ice cold lake (which I also had to jump into), and then hiking around the national park near sunset. Crater Lake has several amazing hiking trails and we decided on Discovery Point Trail, an easy 2 mile trail found near the visitor center, with great views of the lake and Wizard Island. If we had more time we would have also reserved tickets to the boat ride to Wizard Island (the island in the middle of Crater Lake) and back, but it takes up a good portion of the day. We camped the last two days at Collier National Park before heading back home.
