Olympic National Park, WA

I think this park takes the cake on the diversity of environments and types of activities to take part in. Olympic National Park is located right in the tip of the northwest corner of the continental United states. Olympic offers beaches and trails along the coastline of the pacific ocean, forests with enormous trees and rushing rivers, and snowy mountain peaks for the adventurous climber. I had never heard about Olympic National park until I began working on this project of finding the top 20 backpacking locations. Based on the wide array of climates and conditions, i figured that it had to make my list.

I was most interested in what the park had to offer backpackers for wilderness hiking and camping, and was very pleased with what I discovered. The back country permit for Olympic National Park is similar to that of the other back country permits I have already discussed. This park is less known than many of the national parks, so permits may be obtained 30 days from your first day hike or less. According to a few websites, it seems like most of the time you will not need to reserve a permit, but I always think it's better to be prepared in this situation so they aren't out when you arrive. Most of the campsites on the wilderness trails can accommodate 1-6 people, but some group sites may hold up to 12. When you place your reservation, you will give the park rangers a rough itinerary of your planned campgrounds so they have a general idea of where to find you in case of an emergency.

Trip planning would be necessary for a trip like this. The website for this park offers some trails and possible campgrounds to use depending on which part of the park you are interested in hiking. This park, along with many in the US, has had issues with bears taking food from campers so they have installed bear wires in many of the campsites to help with hanging food out of reach of a bear. I think this site has some very clever ideas for backpacking and planning trips. I would check out as many sites as possible and read reviews in forums of places like http://www.backpacker.com/ and http://www.backpacking.net/ to feel more comfortable in places like the Olympic National Park Wilderness.

I think Olympic National Park would be a great place to explore the pacific northwest. It offers so many types of climates that It would be hard for me to narrow it down when choosing my route. If anyone has been to this this location, I would love to hear from you and about your experiences.