Olympic Hot Springs (118F)

Category: Hot Springs-soakable

GPS GeoCoords: 47.976869N, 123.690887W

You probably won't find this beautiful spot on any new Olympic National Park maps as the Parks Service has been trying to de-emphasize the springs. However, all the rangers I have spoken to will happily answer any questions you have.

Once on the Olympic Pennisula, follow Highway 104 across Hood Canal Bridge and take Highway 101 north and west through Port Angeles. If you wish to bypass the busy downtown area, turn left on Race Street and follow it to Lauridsen Boulevard. Turn right and Lauridsen and re-join Highway 101 at the west end of town. Follow Highway 101 about 9 miles to the Elwha River Road and turn left on the Elwha River Road.

Be prepared to pay a $10 per carload fee (if you don't have an annual Parks or Goldern Eagle Pass) at the Olympic National Park entrance station, about 2 miles up the Elwha River Road at the park boundary. Continue up the road another 3 miles past the Elwha Ranger Station and Whiskey Bend Road Junction.

Stay right at the junction and follow the Elwha River Road across the bridge, climbing past Altaire Campground on your right for another 5 miles to the Olympic Hot Springs Trailhead. The trail is an old roadbed that leads 2.5 miles to the hot springs. A sign warns of "Nudity" up ahead at the springs.

Four decades ago, you would have found a hotel and tiled hot spring pools for bathing, but park officials have let the area revert to its natural state. Today the pools are constructed and maintained by the people that use them.

To find the pools, walk through the old parking lot above Boulder Creek to the trail leading upstream. Follow it about 200 yards to a footbridge, cross it and turn left on trails that lead to the pools. Look for way trails leading uphill into the forest and follow them to the pools. The pools get better the further and higher in you go. At last count, I noted 15 rock pools of various sizes.