Another hot spring guide? Yes it’s that time of year. I hope in the near future we can all get back to regular travel and experience all of these places if you can’t right now.
This was an epic trip. It was the year 2018 and I was as free as a bird, before I became a mother. I often would take advantage of the fact, I had a dad who lived in Port Angeles, Washington for a weekend. We hit up Storm King, a couple beaches and the Olympic National Park Hot Springs located in the Olympic National Park of Washington US.
I hope to go back one day as we went late in August and it was scorching hot in the summer. A hot spring on a hot day? We couldn’t really enjoy them for too long or we would get heatstroke lol. It’s too bad that the Elwha River has washed out the road and it’s still not recovered.
This made getting here a trek, but an adventure nonetheless. Refer to this link for updated road closures.
GETTING THERE:
Turn onto Olympic Hot Springs Rd. Stop at Madison falls for a short waterfall hike before or after the trip. Because the road is closed, you’ll have to park here. This adds on an additional 18-20 miles. Before, you drove up the Appletonpass (Boulder Creek) Trailhead and it was only a 2.5m (4km) easy walk. Good news is, it’s less populated due to this reason as only the more adventurous ones proceed with heading up. When we went it was definitely pretty busy, but off season is less. I recommend going in the colder season, just be prepared for weather conditions hiking or biking up.
This starts off relatively easy, but soon you start gaining elevation by climbing a mountain essentially. There are so many pretty views from here. Make sure to take a break at the Glines Canyon Dam, this is why the road got washed out by the Elwha River as they let the river flow more into its natural state.
If you biked, park your bike at the Boulder Creek Trailhead. Start hiking in, there are several beautiful creeks to cross and lovely bridges. Soon you will start to smell the sulphur. You can overnight at the Boulder Creek Campground, make sure you have booked a permit. Click this link for more info. The campground has maybe 3-4 spots from what I remember. I imagine camping would be pretty stellar, soaking in the springs at midnight looking at the stars! If you are day hiking, it makes for a long day but if you are biking it’s a pretty easy trip going back as it’s all downhill.
My dad and I, capped it around 6-8 hours for biking there, hiking in, time spent soaking and back. This adventure is not for the faint of heart. My dad got a flat tire on the way up and had a full blown melt down on the way back. Real mature..lol.
Leaving the Springs:
Like I always say please pack out what you pack in, it’s always so wonderful to see no garbage in places and them being well kept. This area is not well-kept by any park rangers, so it is up to us to keep it pristine. Please note because it’s not very well maintained the water could be more prone to bacteria. We survived obviously, we didn’t worry about it. There is definitely some murkier pools than others that we stayed clear of. There’s quite a few to choose from, we had two as the other ones were occupied. This one was by far my favourite as it was tucked into the forest.
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