Today we will tell you the best time to visit Olympic National Park, on the Olympic Peninsula, in Washington. It is a spectacular natural terrain with animals, lush landscapes, and an aesthetic that seems taken from an authentic story.
Located near Seattle and very close to a city called Forks, twilight fans surely know that this area of the world has a fairly peculiar climate. And we talk about fans because some scenes of the book develop there, where it’s raining a lot of the time, and the sky is dark gray.
This can have its charm for those who like to enjoy the scent of dew, walk through the wet field and then dry off and seek warmth when they get home. But for most people, rain is not something they look for when visiting Olympic National Park, and they look for the best time to avoid it.
When is that moment? We tell you what time of the year is the most optimal time to enjoy the park and other activities for your trip to Olympic National Park.
The best time to go to Olympic National Park according to the weather
The Olympic Peninsula is where rainfall is an important part of each year. Three-quarters of the rains fall between October and March in our winter, making it easier to know the worst time to go.
In addition to rain, winter in this country’s area is cold. Temperatures during the day in December, January, and February can be maximum of 5 degrees Celsius per day and reach temperatures below zero at night. Autumn, that is, the months of October and November, is cold and rainy as well, although somewhat more balanced.
And, indeed, spring is also quite cold if we compare it to other areas of the United States where the sun begins to rise. The Olympic National Park spring is somewhat rainy, with enough wind and maximum temperatures of 16 degrees.
If this is making you concerned over your visit tothis incredible park; the best option is, without a doubt, the summer. There are more sunny hours, temperatures up to 24 or 25 degrees Celsius, and little rain. It is the moment when one can walk around quietly and enjoy this wild nature.
And what happens to tourism?
Everyone wants to travel to Olympic National Park in the summer months. It is when you can enjoy a pleasant climate and sun without excessive heat.
This creates a lot of tourism, which comes with a certain level of inconvenience. There are many areas of the park that cannot be crossed walking, and you have to move by car surrounding it externally to access particularly famous places such as Hurricane Ridge. Queues can often be formed to enter the main accesses of the park, which takes away a certain charm of the adventure.
One solution is to visit in the evening when everyone has already left for the day. This way you can enjoy the sunset, still with good weather and fewer queues for everything.
Other ideas to visit the park on special days
Although many people may think of visiting the Olympic National Park in the cold and rainy season as tragic, others consider it the best time to do so. After all, that is the true nature of the park, and it also has a lot of charm to enjoy with that smell of freshness and nature in its maximum splendor.
Certain events throughout the year can be a good motivation to go. For example, Birdfest is celebrated in April, a beautiful moment in which certain species of birds fly and sing their melodies among the trees of Olympic National Park. This might happen during cold and rainy days, but it will be an incredibly beautiful visit.
There are also other moments of the year when you can see swans at their best, which is the case in December. It will be very cold in the park, but you can enjoy a unique event that, for one, does not exist in the summer.
Finally, September and October is the best time to eat salmon, a species present in the Olympic National Park that is often a key player in events in which plans such as recipe competitions are organized. In addition, September is an intermediate month between the warm summer climate and the arrival of winter, and you may get pleasant days without so many tourists.
In short, we tell you that the best time to go to Olympic National Park is during the summer because the weather is warm and pleasant, and you can enjoy the visit more. But if you want to avoid other tourists, or you care that it is cold and rainy on your visit, the rest of the year, you will enjoy beautiful nature in this particular peninsula on the west coast of the United States.