Seattle to Olympic National Park: Ferry, Drive Time and Route

The Thing to Understand First

Olympic has no road through it. US-101 loops around the outside of the park in a rough circle, and every part of the park you have heard of sits at the end of a spur road that dead-ends at a trailhead or a lodge.

So the question is not how to get to Olympic National Park. It is which corner you are going to first, because Hurricane Ridge and the Hoh Rain Forest are two hours apart on the ground even though they look adjacent on a map.

The full loop around US-101 is about 330 miles.

Three Ways Out of Seattle

1. The Bainbridge ferry

Washington State Ferries from Colman Dock at Pier 52 in downtown Seattle to Winslow. 35 minutes on the water. From the Bainbridge terminal you take WA-305 north through Poulsbo, US-3 to WA-104, cross the Hood Canal Bridge and pick up US-101 west.

Port Angeles is about two and a half hours from Seattle this way, ferry queue permitting.

2. The Edmonds ferry

Edmonds to Kingston, 30 minutes. Better if you are staying north of downtown, in Ballard or anywhere off Interstate 5 north. From Kingston it is WA-104 straight to the Hood Canal Bridge. Similar total time.

3. Around the south end, no boat

Interstate 5 south to Tacoma and Olympia, then US-101 north up the Hood Canal. About 140 miles and three and a half hours to Port Angeles.

It is an hour longer and less interesting, and it is the right call in three cases: you are heading for the Hoh or the coast first rather than Port Angeles, you are travelling on a summer Friday afternoon when the car lines are worst, or you cannot afford to gamble on a sailing.

The Ferry Reservation Question

This catches people every summer. Neither of these routes takes vehicle reservations. Only Port Townsend to Coupeville and the Anacortes to San Juan Islands sailings do.

Seattle to Bainbridge and Edmonds to Kingston are first come, first served. You drive into the holding lanes and you wait. On a July Saturday morning westbound that can be one or two boats, which is 60 to 110 minutes on top of your drive.

Two things reduce the pain. Fares are collected westbound only, so the return is not charged again. And walk-on passengers board every sailing without fail, which matters if you can arrange a car on the far side.

Drive Times From Seattle

• Port Angeles, the main hub: 2.5 hours by ferry, 3.5 hours around.
• Hurricane Ridge: add 40 minutes and 17 miles uphill from Port Angeles.
• Lake Crescent: about 3 hours, 20 minutes west of Port Angeles on US-101.
• Sol Duc Hot Springs: about 3.5 hours, up a 12-mile spur.
• Forks: about 3.5 to 4 hours.
• Hoh Rain Forest: about 4 to 4.5 hours, including the 18-mile spur road off US-101.
• Rialto Beach and La Push: about 4 hours.
• Ruby Beach: about 4 hours by the southern route, which is why the coast pairs naturally with driving around rather than ferrying.

Hurricane Ridge

Seventeen miles and about 40 minutes uphill from Port Angeles, climbing to 5,242 feet. On a clear day you look straight across at Mount Olympus and down into the Elwha valley.

Two things to know. The day lodge burned down in May 2023 and has not been rebuilt, so there is no indoor facility at the top. And in winter the road opens only on certain days and often requires chains, so check the park's road status page the morning you go.

The Hoh Rain Forest

The single most popular destination in the park and the one most likely to defeat you. The Hoh Road is 18 miles off US-101, and in summer the parking area fills by mid-morning. When it does, rangers close the road at the highway and turn cars around, which means an 18-mile drive for nothing.

Arrive before 9am or after 4pm. The Hall of Mosses is a 0.8-mile loop and the Spruce Nature Trail is 1.2 miles, so a short visit genuinely works. The Hoh River Trail runs 17 miles up toward Blue Glacier if you want a real day out.

It rains about 140 inches a year here. Bring the jacket you would bring for rain, not the one you would bring for drizzle.

Fees and Passes

Entrance is $30 per vehicle for seven days, or an America the Beautiful annual pass. There is no timed entry system at Olympic, which makes it easier to plan than Rocky Mountain or Glacier, and it is also why the popular lots fill instead.

Ferry fares are separate and are paid at the terminal.

How to Actually Structure It

One day from Seattle. Take the first Bainbridge ferry, drive to Hurricane Ridge, stop at Lake Crescent and Marymere Falls on the way back, and be home for dinner. That is a full day and it only works with clear weather. The Hoh is too far for a day trip that leaves anything worth having.

Two nights. Base in Port Angeles for the mountains and Lake Crescent, then move to Forks or Kalaloch for the rain forest and the coast. This is the trip most people should take.

Four nights, full loop. Ferry over, work anticlockwise around US-101 through Port Angeles, Forks, the beaches, Lake Quinault and the Hood Canal, and come home through Olympia without repeating a mile. Roughly 330 miles of driving spread across four days.

One Weather Note

The peninsula has a genuine rain shadow. Sequim, half an hour east of Port Angeles, gets around 16 inches of rain a year. The Hoh, 80 miles away, gets 140. If the forecast for the west side is grim, the east side of the park is often dry, and that is a real fallback rather than wishful thinking.