Neha Neelwarne

For our thirteenth anniversary, my partner and I decided to take a long weekend and drive to Washington to experience the Olympic National Park firsthand.

We didn’t have too many expectations and didn’t plan anything elaborate. We booked a picturesque airbnb near Port Angeles, WA the day before we left, dropped off the dog at a boarding facility and started the drive.

We’ve just arrived back home and I have a feeling we’re going to remember this anniversary weekend for a looong time to come!

First – I just want to make sure I cover that our airbnb was amazing! Just what we needed! Secluded, romantic, hospitable…we loved it! It became our home base as we explored over a couple of days.

Now, to the park itself. Unlike the other National Parks we’ve visited so far, the Olympic National Park didn’t seem to have one distinct feature/landmark that we could associate with the park at the outset. Over an hour into the drive, I was still trying to figure out what differentiates this area from the rest of the Pacific Northwest.

It wasn’t until we drove around the area over the next couple of days did I start to pick up on the absolutely insane moss taking over the forest. We visited the Hall of Mosses to get a better look, and here’s my take:

1. This park is home to a rainforest – rare for this part of the world.
2. This is a thick forest and the moss covers almost all trees. I have never seen anything like it.
3. The forest is kind of…eery. I don’t believe I have ever been in a place this quiet. There were very few people (we saw none after a few feet into the trail), there was no wind, no movement, no nothing. After a while hiking into the forest, it got a bit spooky for me. My partner and I stopped and held our breaths for a few seconds to see if we could hear anything. We heard a creek…and our heartbeats.
4. The lakes around the area actually look like glass…I think because there was very little movement. Again, something I have never seen before.
5. A couple of days is not enough to explore the diverse area…we hardly got to explore the coast, or get a good look at Mt. Olympus. I’m really glad that we explored the rainforest first, because it was so unlike anything I have seen before. We will be back to visit the other parts!

We drove along the coast and tried to visit Cape Flattery – to view the northwest tip of the U.S. We could see Canada from the scenic route that we drove on, and that was pretty cool! However, due to COVID, Neah Bay was closed to visitors so we weren’t able to actually visit Cape Flattery 😷.

Side note: The more time I spent in the Olympic National Park, the more I felt like I was in Lothlórien and that Galadriel was watching me, ready to enchant me with something magical and fearsome…

Do you have favorite hikes in the Olympic National Park? We’re probably going to visit again in the next year, and would love to expand our experiences and our understanding of this unique, enchanted area! 🙏🏾