The Olympic Discovery Trail to Olympic National Park
Leaving Port Townsend we picked up our first stretch of the fantastic Olympic Discovery Trail—a trail we’ve come to cherish during our tour of the Olympic Peninsula. The ride along highways 20 and 101 along the Miller peninsula past Gardiner to Blunt were altogether not terrible with a few side tracks that allowed some respite from the highway. But at Blyn you can pick up another longer chunk of the Olympic Discovery trail that will bring you through Sequim (pronounced Squim), where you can stay at the hiker/biker in Dungeness Recreation Area.
From here, much of the remainder of the trip to Olympic National Park can follow the Olympic Discovery trail, aside from a brief but frustrating segment on a nearly shoulder-less highway 112.
Nevertheless the ride on the Discovery trail is worth it in itself, including a fascinating bridge crossing at X and the magical tunnel route along the north side of the crystal blue water of Lake Crescent. This entire route takes a long slow climb to Sol Duc River Rd, where you can enter Olympic National Park.
For our trip, we headed up to Sol Duc trailhead to start a 7 day backpacking trip around Seven Lakes Basin and up to Glacier Meadow at the base of Mount Olympus.