Port Angeles park entrance: 48 miles W of Port Townsend, 57 miles E of Forks
The northern portions of Olympic National Park are both the most accessible and most popular. It is here, south of Port Angeles, that two roads lead into the national park's high country. Of the two areas reached by these roads, Hurricane Ridge is the more accessible. Deer Park, the other road-accessed high-country destination, is at the end of a harrowing gravel road and is little visited. West of Port Angeles within the national park's lowlands lie two large lakes, Lake Crescent and Lake Ozette, that attract boaters and anglers. Also in this region are two hot springs -- the developed Sol Duc Resort and the natural Olympic Hot Springs.
Outside the park boundaries, along the northern coast of the peninsula, are several campgrounds, a beautiful stretch of coastline that is popular with kayakers, and a couple of small sportfishing ports, Sekiu and Neah Bay, that are also popular with scuba divers. Neah Bay, which is on the Makah Indian Reservation, is also the site of one of the most interesting little museums in the state. This reservation encompasses Cape Flattery, which is the northwesternmost point in the contiguous United States.
Port Angeles, primarily a lumber-shipping port, is the largest town on the north Olympic Peninsula and serves as a base for people exploring the national park and as a port for ferries crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Victoria, British Columbia. Here you'll find the region's greatest concentration of lodgings and restaurants.
