Olympic National Park is about a 2.5 hour drive from our hotel so we got an early start this morning. I put on an audio book while we drove and it helped the time pass quickly. We entered the park and drove up to Hurricane Ridge for some easy hiking and views. There are a couple wildfires creating some issues with smoke and closures in the parks so we had to read signs and take pictures for later reference. It was slightly hazy/smokey on Hurricane Ridge but it wasn’t so severe that we were unable to enjoy it. We saw a marmot and sat watching him for a few minutes before continuing onward. Mom was excited to see the Sol Duc Falls so we drove to that area of the park. 

Interestingly, we had to exit Olympic from the Hurricane Ridge side and drive through the town of Port Angeles around to a different entrance to access Sol Duc. We were getting hungry and lucked into finding a wonderful bakery for lunch. Buena Luz Bakery offers espresso, drip coffee, tea, and hot cocoa in addition a variety of pastries. They also offer a grab and go lunch menu consisting of sandwiches (served on house made bread) and salads. Mom and I got the honey turkey (smoked turkey, honey schmear, mixed greens, and roasted red peppers) and the ham and spice (ham, spicy schmear, mixed greens, and cucumber). The sandwiches were delicious, fresh, a good size (they were filling without feeling heavy and we were still comfortably full a few hours later), easy to eat in the car, and  reasonably priced at $9 per sandwich. I was very pleased that we managed to find this gem! 

Lake Crescent is a worthwhile stop on route to Sol Duc. We didn’t spend much time at Crescent Lake aside from stretching our legs and snapping a few photos but it was a good stopping point with a beautiful view. We continued our drive to the Sol Duc area of the park. I wasn’t keen to park in any unmarked spots and pulling off to the side of the road was even a bit precarious … I really didn’t want to get Blue Lightning (okay, I made that name up but it does describe our rental car!) stuck. Thankfully, we found a marked parking spot in the paved parking lot after making a couple loops around. It took roughly an hour round-trip to hike out to the Sol Duc Falls. The hike is mostly downhill on the way to the falls and uphill on the way back to the parking lot but it isn’t overly difficult. There are multiple hiking trails that connect and some go for several miles so be prepared for sudden weather changes if you plan to take the longer hikes. 

Like most National Parks, Olympic is massive and it is difficult to see even half of the park in a single day. We had to prioritize and be selective with what we saw due to the amount of time we had to spend in the park, realizing we still had a 3.5 hour drive to get to our next hotel. After we hiked out to Sol Duc Falls and back, we decided to get started on our drive to Burlington, WA, and our hotel for the next two nights. Audio book playing, the time passed quickly and we made one stop for food and fuel. We opted for McDonald’s for dinner so we could eat in the car and keep going. 

We arrived at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Burlington, checked in to our room, and unloaded the car. We are participating in cooking classes tomorrow so we made the short drive out to the King Arthur Baking School to be sure we knew how to get there. We had a fun “learn where your food comes from” moment when we drove by fields of brussel sprouts! I didn’t know what they looked like when they grew and both Mom and I were nerding out to see it! We made our way back to the hotel called it a night soon after.