On this Olympic National Park hiking tour, natural diversity abounds, and native roots run deep.
By the great stone fireplace of your lakeside lodge, Native American storyteller Harvest Moon holds you riveted with tales of the Quinault people. Listening, you realize that each story connects intimately with the land. The very place you’ve been walking through on this Olympic National Park hiking tour, with its giant cedars and crashing waves, seals and whales, eagles and elk. On the Olympic Peninsula, exuberant nature is alive and well: untamed Pacific coastlines; old-growth rainforests replete with moss; thundering waterfalls, hot springs, and snowcapped peaks. A profusion of untamed landscapes, all made accessible by one of America’s oldest walking trail networks. And all made cozy by historic park lodges like this. As Harvest begins a new tale, and another log blazes on the fire, let your roots sink deeper into this fertile land.
Highlights
- Gain a fascinating perspective on Native American culture as a Quinault elder shares her stories and legends with you over a glass of wine.
- Explore the enigmatic Mima Mounds Natural Preserve as your guide shares theories on the creation of this vast prairie of six-foot-high earthen hummocks.
- Marvel at majestic Sol Duc Falls, then descend to Sol Duc Hot Spring Resort for a relaxing soak followed by a cold beverage.
Positive Impact
Country Walkers is proud to support The Center for Whale Research with a donation on behalf of each guest on this tour. The Center for Whale Research is the leading institution for study, research, and health assessments of killer (orca) whales in the Pacific Northwest. Since 1976, the center has conducted an annual photo-identification study of their local killer whales. Because of this, more is known about this population of orcas than any other in the world. Each guest on tour visits a salmon habitat crucial to the survival of killer whales.
Accommodations
This was a beautiful tour. I found it to be a more moderate than easy, but very doable.
Washington: Olympic Peninsula
The guides (Heather and Eric) made this a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. The agenda was perfect, with well thought out options to extend hikes. They are both extremely knowledgeable about the Olympic Peninsula history, geology, flora and fauna and shared in a completely approachable way. I learned a lot, I hiked a lot, I ate a lot (all the meals, especially the picnics) were really good. The fellow travelers were great and the lodgings were very comfortable. The pre-trip packing list addressed all the needs of variable weather.
Washington: Olympic Peninsula
Expert Local Guides
Experience your destination like an insider with people who call it home.
Erin Reading
Born and rooted in WA, Erin fell in love with the Cascades and Olympics while studying philosophy and geology in college. During her graduate school years in CA, Erin returned home each summer to work as a wilderness ranger, deepening her relationship with the mountains. She now lives in the woods on the Olympic Peninsula and is passionate about wilderness adventures, community weaving, and continually connecting with and learning from the natural world.
Eric Kessler
Eric Kessler studied the natural history of the Olympic Peninsula in college and has explored its jagged peaks and forested valleys as a wilderness traveler ever since. Eric has guided worldwide and pursues his parallel photography career documenting the planet’s native peoples and ecosystems, including a writing/photo project on the Olympic Peninsula’s Elwha River, which was part of the largest dam removal and watershed restoration project in US history. Eric often guides in our National Parks with his partner and co-guide Heather Harding.
Heather Harding
Heather Harding has been guiding for decades on both Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, where she lives in the summer, and in the canyons and plateaus of the Southwest, where she earned college degrees in biology and Southwest Studies, and where she continues to explore from her winter residence in Kanab, Utah. Heather brings a world-wide background of whale research and Waldorf teaching to her guiding. When she isn’t guiding, she enjoys life to the fullest with her partner and frequent co-guide Eric Kessler, and she shares her knowledge by training guides and naturalists for the Jefferson Land Trust and the National Association for Interpretation.