Trip Itinerary Planning Backpacking the Olympic Coast

Planning a Trip Itinerary for backpacking the Olympic Coast!? Awesome! Here’s what you need to know!

Hiking speed on the Olympic Coast?

Estimating hiking speed is the trickiest part. Easiest summary?! It’s all just SLOW!

• We underestimated pretty much everything. Even the boardwalk trails took longer than expected!
• Most beaches are deep sand/small pebbles; Headlands are rocks/boulders; Low tide spots are wet, slimy rocks that mean you slip … alot!
• Trekking poles are a wildcard whether they help. I used them around Cape Johnson but still slipped plenty and actually broke one of them in half!

Here’s what Hiking Speed looked like for us:

• Olympic North Coast
  • Rialto beach to Chilean Memorial (3.7 miles) = 3 hours
    • This included lots of photo ops and the last hour was hiking in the dark!
  • Rounding Cape Johnson headland & the next low tide spot (~1.5 miles) = over 2 hours
    • This section was incredibly slow and long, plus we met a bear!
  • Kayostla beach (first 2.1 miles to low tide spot) = ~ 1.5 hours
    • This beach was just a trip!

TRIP ITINERARY PLANNING
BACKPACKING THE OLYMPIC COAST

North or South?

Either way works. We hiked South to North because

• There are alot more low tide spots at the beginning that don’t have alternative overland trails.
• Ending on the awesome beaches of South Sand Point was pretty incredible!

Planning your Olympic North Coast backpacking trip itinerary

The best tip I read when planning my backpacking trip on the Olympic Coast was

Don’t attempt too many miles in a single day!

The source said “5 – 10 miles is a LONG day on the coast” and I couldn’t agree more.

Here’s a link to the trip itinerary I planned while trying to put all the pieces together and decide where to camp each night.

Our trip in Oct 2020 looked like this:

• THURS PM Rialto to Chilean Memorial (3.7 mi)
  • We started at ~5:15PM
  • Got to camp ~8:15PM
• FRI to Norwegian Memorial (6.3 mi)**
  • We started at ~8AM, waited out high tide ~11:30AM – 3:30PM
  • Got to camp ~6PM
• SAT to Ozette (10.2 mi)**
  • We started at ~9AM, waited out high tide at Yellow Banks
  • Ended at 8:30PM in the dark at Ozette Ranger Station
• ** These full days were long and we were exhausted by the end of each

Other itineraries I’d recommend:

4 day / 3 night:

• DAY 1 Rialto to Chilean (3.7 mi)
• DAY 2 to Norwegian (6.3 mi)
• DAY 3 to Sand Point (LONG 7.2 mi, wait out high tide at Yellow Banks),
• DAY 4 to Ozette via Cape Alava (6.4 mi)

3 day / 2 night:

• DAY 1 Rialto to Cedar Creek (LONG 8 mi, start early, use both low tide hiking windows, wait out high tide at Chilean)
• DAY 2 to Yellow Banks (6.8 mi)
• DAY 3 to Ozette via Cape Alava (8.5 mi)

I don’t recommend trying less than 2 nights but under certain conditions it’s do-able

FINAL TIPS PLANNING TRIP ITINERARY
BACKPACKING THE OLYMPIC COAST

What is it actually like to hike the “beach”?

It’s an Experience!