Washington National Parks
2024 December 2
Recently did a little road trip across the three national parks of Washington state in mid-October and had a blast! We got our fill of fall foliage and were lucky enough to catch the tail end of golden larch season.
North Cascades NP
- The least popular of the parks, but I loved it!
- Lots of cool waterfalls as you drive through the North Cascades Highway
- Maple Pass Loop is an amazing hike, one of my favorite ever. Going counterclockwise, you get views all the way up the mountain
- Blue Lake Trail was beautiful under light snowfall, it felt like Christmas, but with golden and green Christmas trees interspersed.
- We stayed the night in a cute little town called Mazama
Mount Rainer NP
- Winter season started so most of the roads were icy and we ended up having to wait for it to thaw out before making our way in
- Skyline Trail Loop was a great trail with spectacular views of Mount Rainer. We weren’t prepared with the proper snow hiking shoes but still got up pretty close to the mountain.
- We only had time to check out one part of the park so will need to make a return trip someday.
Olympic NP
- It was really cool to hike through the temperate rainforest at Lake Quinault. Who would’ve thought you could find a rainforest out here? Such a stark contrast from the many mountains we hiked earlier in the trip.
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