Why join an Experience Olympic tour?

We have tried to answer some of the most common questions in the hope that you will consider Olympic National Park Tours with Experience Olympic, Port Angeles WA to ask us even more questions!

Skip the answers presented on this page and learn more about Experience Olympic, your Olympic Peninsula Tour Operator

Family and kid-friendly tours with a certified teacher and wildlife guide

A study has shown that the best way to instill environmental awareness in adults is to encourage opportunities to explore wild places (including hiking) before 11 years of age.

Pacific Northwest tide pool tours appeal to families (recommended for children 6 and up) due to its particularly hands-on nature and exploration of an exciting underwater world during a low tide.  Olympic National Park eco tours have a multi-generational appeal for both "the slightly stiff grandparents and the luckily limber grandchildren".

Whether you are interested in tidepooling, hiking, birding or wildlife watching, we work hard to make Experience Olympic tours enjoyable for all ages by structuring our day together to fit participant needs.  Children who enjoy naps might prefer tours with a longer drive so they can nap in the car.

Owner and naturalist guide Carolyn Wilcox is a certified Washington State teacher who feels that Olympic National Park wilderness is the best possible outdoor classroom environment - where the lessons are all experiential and impromptu.

Three hour trip to Port Angeles from Seattle (ONP is even further)

Some tour operators advertise Olympic National Park tours from Seattle for a day but approximately eight hours of your time will be spent driving/traveling (with ~2 hours of that time waiting and traveling on a ferry) with little time left for hiking.  Additionally, Olympic National Park rainforest animals are generally not active in the middle of the day. 

If you take one of the ferries (Seattle-Bainbridge or Edmonds-Kingston), it is about an 82 mile one-way trip from Seattle to Port Angeles, the gateway city to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park.  It is approximately a 20 mile one-way drive to Hurricane Ridge from Port Angeles but this is a slow windy road so drive time is about 45 minutes one-way.

Olympic National Park is just under one million acres and circumnavigating it would take an entire day of constant driving.

In order to really experience Olympic National Park, consider booking lodging for a minimum of one or two nights and organize transportation to Port Angeles, Washington.  You can easily  spend at least a week on the Olympic Peninsula and it is adviseable to organize your summer lodging early (a year in advance in some cases), especially if you plan on staying in one of the Olympic National Park lodges.

If you find that the Olympic National Park lodges (which are not locally owned) are booked, consider the Hobuck Beach Resort or the Quileute Oceanside Resort as both lodging options are locally owned and are located right on the beach!

Experience Olympic tours to the Hoh Rainforest

Hoh Rainforest ek and hiking tours can be organized, though it is a 91 mile (one way) trip from Port Angeles, Washington (4 hour roundtrip drive).  Seattle is about 82 miles (one way) from Port Angles for comparison. 

Closer to Port Angeles, Washington, Elwha River hiking and dam removal tours shows you a wilder ecosystem that includes an amazing story from a biologist who intimately knows this special place. The Elwha forest mirrors the Hoh rainforest when considering many natural aspects, including all the same wildlife.

However, the Hoh is technically a temperate rainforest because it receives the requisite amount of annual precipitation, unlike lowland forests in the lower portion of the Elwha River.

Experience Olympic tours to the Pacific Coast

Olympic National Park Beach Tours can be organized to the closest Pacific Coast beaches (Rialto, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Beach) that are an estimated 70 mile (one-way) trip from Port Angeles, Washington (3 hour roundtrip drive) or to Ruby Beach (approximately the same distance "out-of-the-way" if you are driving to the Hoh Rainforest).  A popular combination is a  West End tour to the Hoh Rainforest and one of the La Push coastal beaches or Ruby Beach.

We have structured our Pacific Northwest tide pool tours to explore both a local rocky shore and a beach on the Strait of Juan de Fuca (also called the Salish Sea).  The tidepooling location for our Salish Sea tours is listed as a premier spot in the state of Washington though it is not located in Olympic National Park.

Solitude experienced on Experience Olympic tours

The act of visiting Olympic National Park ensures a certain amount of solitude as Port Angeles, Washington has a population of just under 20,000 and it's the largest city on the Olympic Peninsula.

The Olympic Peninsula is in so isolated of a location that Twilight wasn’t even filmed here despite being set in Forks, Washington.

Our Washington State ecotourism adventures offer a certain amount of solitude due to daily timing, the act of hiking, and local place-based knowledge of different hiking and driving routes.

If you're not much of a hiker and do not want to experience any possible parking-lot crowds, consider visiting Olympic National Park sometime before Memorial Day or after Labor Day for maximum park tranquility.

Special nature of Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park is a World Heritage Site and International Biosphere Reserve harboring great Olympic Peninsula biodiversity.

Birds are an active and abundant facet of Olympic wildlife and are generally viewed on all Experience Olympic tours, which is why we have organized Olympic Peninsula birding tours.

The flora & fauna as well as the scenery of Olympic National Park are stunningly beautiful.

Food on Experience Olympic tours

We know where to purchase sandwiches or other lunch items and when providing transportation, we will bring a cooler for food storage.

Experience Olympic guided ecotours do not include food but we will stop at the appropriate grocery store or restaurant to meet your food preferences as part of our trip planning.

Nature might also provide us with some local organic food, especially during the summer.

Experience Olympic tour logistics

Experience Olympic tours are scheduled by making a reservation with us.  We have been able to arrange tours for the following day though we generally request 24 hour notice.  Please try contacting us. 

We will meet in Port Angeles, Washington unless other arrangements have been made.  Our actual start time is largely based on your preferences, the time of year, and type of tour (for example, tours to the tidepools are based on tide schedules).

In general, we advise starting as early as possible.  During the summer, dawn is an excellent times for viewing Olympic wildlife as well as finding more solitude on the trail.

Experience Olympic vehicle

Transportation will be provided by a minivan that seats six passengers.  It is kept in good condition and cleaned regularly between tours. 

If you have more than six people interested in exploring Olympic National Park or already have your own transportation and have space for one more passenger, please consider opting for our Guide Service.

Roots of Experience Olympic tours

Experience Olympic LLC was created in 2012, with business officially starting in 2013.  We have over 100 excellent tour reviews on TripAdvisor.

Carolyn first started taking family and friends on unofficial tours in 2006, with a coastal backpacking trip designed for her aunt.

Being a teacher, Carolyn considers her guiding roots to have started as a student teacher in Costa Rica in 2003. She fondly remembers guiding students on public transit in San Jose to volunteer at Amigos de las Aves (a rehabilitation center for Scarlett and Hyacinth Macaws).