Paddle & Hike Ozette

Olympic National Park

After guiding customers for over 13 years in the Pacific Northwest, it takes a special trip and spectacular scenery to take my breath away, but this area will do just that! Rain forests, prairie lands, ancient Native American petroglyphs, a rugged wilderness coast, a huge wilderness lake to kayak, and good company - who could ask for more. I joined ANEW Outdoors to help lead 3 day REI Adventure Tours to this roadless wilderness.

Day One: Lake Ozette sits within Olympic National Park, and a peaceful campsite at the north end was our base camp for the weekend. This is bear country so all waste, food, stoves, and smelling deodorants must be stored in vehicles overnight. After meeting our guests and settling in, our group embarked on an afternoon paddle on Ozette Lake. It is rare to find such a massive lake devoid of human development, but we and the bears, trout, birds, and insects, had this lake to ourselves. Several hours of paddling and less than a third of the lake paddled, led us to rest at Schafers Point for tea and cookies. This is very close to a boat-in only wilderness campsite, and this area welcomes a return visit for a multi day kayak trip to see the southern half of the lake, and foot exploration to the coasts Norwegian Memorial & nearby Starbucks mine. As usual the wind picked up for our return paddle back to base, but our guests settled into a good rhythm and we made excellent time. The Dutch oven filled our bellies, and we settled into our tents with the sound of humming birds overhead.

Day two: Fresh Dutch Oven Banana bread and cowboy coffee gave us the energy to hoist packs and set off on a 13 mile loop hike to the coast, and camp somewhere between Sand Point & Cape Alava. I brought along one of my new custom made Ozette maps of the area which gave us aerial photos & topo info, locations of campsites, and points of interest to explore for the next two days. Our hike led us thru mysterious Lord of the Rings rainforests, and a cedar planked boardwalk lead us to the ocean. Permits are necessary to camp this stretch of the Olympic National Park, which are reserve able at the Park Office in Port Angeles. A hard sided food canister is also a Park requirement to prevent bears, possums, and rodents from depleting your food supply. Eagles soared above, and seals lounged on rock outcrops as we hiked to our secluded campsite. With packs left at our new coastal camp we leisurely hiked to Wedding Rocks the site of 300-500 year old petroglyphs. These are a must see: drawings carved into the rock of Orcas, Grey Whales, people & faces, a sailing ship, and some interesting symbols litter this area, in all over 30 plus rocks have petroglyph's, some above and some below the high tide line. A fantastic sunset greeted us on our return. We started a fire on the beach as requested by the Ranger who passed by, to protect the lowland trees, particularly their exposed roots from fire damage, and we would let the ocean reclaim our fire pit on the next high tide.

Day three:
More cowboy coffee and a gourmet breakfast fueled the hikers to break camp and head north to Cape Alava, and the site of the Ozette Nations early settlement. This is spectacular hiking, and I can see why the Ozette People chose this location, with numerous creeks, and many headlands jutting into the ocean acting as lookout stations. The Coast Guard even operated a Watch Station during word war 2 in this area. Just north of the early settlement, one of the most important archeological dig sites on the coast is located. A landslide preserved this area and many artifacts are now displayed at the Makah Museum near Neah Bay. Cape Alava is a popular camping spot with tall grasslands and trees sweeping down to sandy beaches. If you don’t mind other campers nearby this is a great spot. For more tranquility and isolation go a little further north.

Cape Alava also provides a loop trail (mostly boardwalk) back to Lake Ozette so hikers need not back track. To top off an impressive hike this northern trail winds thru rainforests and dissects several prairies, and one prairie was once home to the west’s most remote early European settler, Lar Ahlstrom. Lars’ cabin is hidden off the track, but remains of his barn are now a welcoming bench seat on the trail. We heard Grouse, and saw several deer, and admired the wildflowers in this area. Early settlers relied on the Makah & Ozette Peoples to canoe them & supplies from Neah Bay to settle the area. The Ozette road was eagerly awaited but settlers abandoned the area before it was finally built in the 1930’s. The final hike over a bridge of the Ozette River near the lakes entrance marks a joint effort by the Park and local Tribes to preserve and return the wild sockeye salmon run to its former glory.

This is truly a great area to explore. Give REI Adventures a call, view the itinerary, and join us on our next trip. For a complete photo gallery of this trip click here.