Pacific Northwest National Parks Road Trip: Four Parks From Seattle
Four parks, 1,300 miles, 10 days out of Seattle: Olympic, Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Crater Lake. Give Olympic three days, because it holds rain forest, coast and alpine ridge in one park. Rainier gets two, North Cascades one, Crater Lake two, and the rest is driving. The season is short. Highway 20 through the North Cascades, the Sunrise road at Rainier and the full Rim Drive at Crater Lake are usually all open only from mid July into late September. Our Olympic Peninsula loop covers the biggest leg.
The four parks
- Olympic. Hurricane Ridge for the alpine, the Hoh and Quinault valleys for temperate rain forest, and Rialto or Ruby Beach for sea stacks. Nothing connects across the middle, so the park is a 330 mile drive around the outside of it.
- Mount Rainier. Paradise on the south side for wildflower meadows and Skyline Trail, Sunrise on the northeast for the closest road level glacier views in the lower 48. Sunrise opens later, usually early July.
- North Cascades. Highway 20 is the park for anyone not backpacking. Diablo Lake Overlook, the Blue Lake trail and Maple Pass are the day hikes. The highway closes for the winter, typically from November until April or May.
- Crater Lake. The deepest lake in the country in a caldera 2,000 feet below the rim. Rim Drive is 33 miles and the last of it clears in July.
The 10 day loop
- Days 1 to 3, Olympic. Seattle to Port Angeles by ferry or around through Tacoma, two and a half hours. Hurricane Ridge, then the Hoh Rain Forest and the coast. See Seattle to Olympic National Park.
- Days 4 and 5, Mount Rainier. Four hours from Forks. Skyline Trail at Paradise on the first day, Sunrise and the Burroughs Mountain trail on the second. Check Mount Rainier timed entry before you go.
- Day 6, North Cascades. Four and a half hours north. Blue Lake or Maple Pass from Rainy Pass, and a night in Winthrop or Marblemount.
- Day 7, transfer south. North Cascades to Bend or Klamath Falls is a long day. Break it in Portland and add the Columbia River Gorge waterfalls.
- Days 8 and 9, Crater Lake. Rim Drive, the Watchman Peak trail at sunset, and the Cleetwood Cove switchbacks down to the boat if you want to touch the water.
- Day 10: Crater Lake to Portland is four and a half hours, or six and a half back to Seattle.
The 7 day Washington version
Five hundred miles and no state line. Olympic for three days, Rainier for two, North Cascades for one, plus a day for Mount St. Helens or the Columbia River Gorge on the way. This is the better plan if you are flying in and out of Seattle and want hiking rather than windscreen time.
The road opening problem
More than anywhere else in the country, this trip is decided by snow. The high roads here sit at 5,000 feet in a maritime climate that dumps 40 feet of snow on them.
- Highway 20, North Cascades: usually closed November to April or May.
- Sunrise, Mount Rainier: usually opens late June or early July.
- Crater Lake Rim Drive: the east half typically opens in July.
- Hurricane Ridge, Olympic: open all year in daylight, weather permitting, and often Friday to Sunday only in winter.
If your dates are in June, plan the coastal and rain forest half of the trip and treat any high road as a bonus. If they are in August, everything is open and the wildflowers at Paradise are the best two weeks of the year.
Rain, and what to do about it
The Hoh Rain Forest gets about 140 inches of rain a year. Even in August you should plan on one wet day in three on the Olympic coast, and the rain shadow on the northeast side of the peninsula around Sequim gets a quarter of that. Two practical moves: keep the coast and rain forest days flexible so you can swap them, and carry a real rain shell rather than a packable windbreaker. Our Olympic rain shadow guide explains where the dry side is.
Have us build the loop
Tell us your dates and we will check what is open, then lay out the loop day by day with the beds and permits sorted. Planning is free, and we earn only if you book through us.
Pacific Northwest National Parks Road Trip: Four Parks From Seattle FAQs
Four: Olympic, Mount Rainier and North Cascades in Washington, and Crater Lake in Oregon. Mount St. Helens is a national volcanic monument rather than a park, and worth a day anyway.
Ten days for all four parks, about 1,300 miles from Seattle. Seven days is enough for the three Washington parks with a day left over for Mount St. Helens or the Columbia River Gorge.
Mid July to late September. That is the only stretch when Highway 20, the Sunrise road at Rainier and the full Crater Lake Rim Drive are all open. Late July and early August is peak wildflower season at Paradise.
No. There is no road through the middle. Highway 101 loops around the outside, roughly 330 miles, and every part of the park is a spur road off it. That is why Olympic needs three days rather than one.
Recent summers have used timed entry reservations for the Paradise and Sunrise corridors during peak hours. Check the park page once your dates are set, and note that arriving before the window starts is usually still allowed.
Only as part of a loop. It is six and a half hours from Seattle, so it makes sense combined with Portland and the Columbia River Gorge, or on the way to California. On a one week Washington trip, skip it.
