Some Recommendations for a Road Trip to the Olympic Peninsula

We gathered lots of recommendations from all over the place for this five-day road trip down to the Olympic Peninsula. And now we have some recommendations of our own.

Take a better camera.

When you’re travelling overseas for a month or more a small camera helps to keep the load down. But if you’re only going for a week or so, and travelling with your car, then definitely take a better camera with a decent zoom lens and a tripod.

It rains a lot on the peninsula so you also might consider a small umbrella to protect your better camera while sitting it’s there on the tripod.

Some potential tripod shots: the rainforest in the rain; waterfalls in slow motion. Some potential zoom shots: birds and whales, seals and all kinds of wildlife. You’re shouldn’t get too close to these wild creatures, and only having a 5x zoom was the pits.

Keith Kapple is a dedicated photographer with outstanding shots of this region. Here’s his photos and photography/travel hints from his twelve day photo shoot within the Olympic National Park : http://www.kapplemultimedia.com/washington/washington_olympic_national_park_landscapes.html

Food.

If heading west along the Highway 10, stock up for a picnic in Port Angeles. Eating spots are far and few between, and we got very spoiled by the fabulous restaurants in Anacortes and Port Townsend.

We actually had planned on camping a bit but assumed we would go out for meals. Consequently, we brought along our cooler but hadn’t bothered with any other cookware. In retrospect, it would have been nothing to have just tossed the cooking gear in. Without cooking gear camping wasn’t really an option.

What worked for us.

The GPS combined with the AAA Tour Book. It was so easy to put the Tourist Info address into the GPS and then drive right there.

The Tourist Infos. The offices in Port Townsend and Port Angeles had detailed brochures with accommodation in all price ranges, and enthusiastic hosts with recommendations for the best local restaurants and hikes. Plus lots of speciality brochures designed to entice you to extend your stay.
A few more interesting links :