

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.
A beautiful place to walk in the state of Washington
Washington: Olympic Peninsula
Where to begin??? My first ever hiking adventure with a group! It was more than fantastic! Heather and Deb our guides were perfect for our group. They could easily "read" us and made us all feel welcome and special. I loved the briefings and readings we received daily especially the laminated maps, pictures to help us better visualize and understand our day! Food was magnificent! Loved the snacks and lunches during the day. The lodges where we stayed were the grand finale every night to our beautiful hiking experiences. Thanks for the memories!!
Washington: Olympic Peninsula
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.
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