Olympic National Park--Photographic Recommendations?

[JoeW]

I have business taking me to Seattle in May. I will have a total of exactly one day free that I can spend in Olympic National Park.

For any of you photographers who have been there--what advice would you give me of where to go with the limited time I've got. I'm asking photographically, not to just be a tourist and drive around a loop. What settings would you recommend in that limited time?

 

[yahgiggle]

I have business taking me to Seattle in May. I will have a total of exactly one day free that I can spend in Olympic National Park.

For any of you photographers who have been there--what advice would you give me of where to go with the limited time I've got. I'm asking photographically, not to just be a tourist and drive around a loop. What settings would you recommend in that limited time?

if your asking what settings you should use then maybe the best setting for you is just AUTO im saying this because there is no one setting anyone can give you with us not knowing the light conditions at the time your in the Olympic National Park, light changes all the time, the best thing for you is to learn how to adjust the settings on your own camera so when your in any area you can adjust it to the conditions your in.

 

[JonFZ300]

I have business taking me to Seattle in May. I will have a total of exactly one day free that I can spend in Olympic National Park.

For any of you photographers who have been there--what advice would you give me of where to go with the limited time I've got. I'm asking photographically, not to just be a tourist and drive around a loop. What settings would you recommend in that limited time?

I live just north of Seattle and I have been to Olympic a lot. When you say "one day," what do you mean? Are you going from Seattle to the park and back to Seattle in one day? Are you spending 24 whole hours just on the peninsula? Do you have any idea where you want to go?

Olympic is generally huge (about a 50x50 mile square) and is mostly roadless wilderness. It has three distinct environments you can shoot. There's mountains, rain forest, and and coast. Rain forest and coast are on the western side which is a long way from Seattle to do in a day. Hurricane Ridge is a great spot for mountains and easy to access from Port Angeles but still about 3 hours (or more) travel time from Seattle.

I'm glad to help but need more logistical info. If it's a day trip from Seattle, I'd seriously consider something closer, like Rainier, but there will still be tons of snow up there.

 

[JoeW]

OK, sorry for not providing more details on the initial post. I'm not asking about camera settings or gear. I'm looking for advice on shooting locations or physical settings or geographic spots instead. I know that Olympic is HUGE. There is no way I'm going to "see it" in a day, even if I never get out of my car. So what I'm looking for is advice like "try shooting here--you'll get some amazing shots" or "go to this location, you'll have a really iconic setting or backdrop."

And yes, I have 1 day. I won't be camping. But basically I'll have the entire day of May 10th. My flight out of SeaTac leaves early on May 11th. My client work (in Bellevue) runs until late afternoon of May 9th.

So perhaps if I were to phrase my initial post better, it would be: as a photographer, if you could pick only 1 or 2 spots in ONP to have a couple of hours to shoot in, what would those locations be?

 

[K9Kirk]

I can't recommend anything in particular from experience but I'm looking at top 10 places there on google and they all look pretty good. My personal suggestion on location would be (if possible) to go to locations where the sun is to your back to help eliminate difficult, dark pics. I hope that helps, have fun!
Edit: Maybe important and useful?
Photo Gallery - Olympic National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

 

[JonFZ300]

So perhaps if I were to phrase my initial post better, it would be: as a photographer, if you could pick only 1 or 2 spots in ONP to have a couple of hours to shoot in, what would those locations be?

If you get a hotel in Port Angeles after work Thursday, the whole park is available to you for a couple hours of shooting. What interests you most between mountains, rainforest and coast?

For mountains, Hurricane Ridge is splendid. For rain forest I'd go to Hoh Valley, for coast/beach, I'd say Rialto beach. Those are also in order from closest to farthest from Seattle. HR would be about 2.5-3 hours to get back to Seattle and Rialto would be 4-5 hours.

Couple of hours? I would probably say Hurricane Ridge. Big grand mountain views, looks like Switzerland up there. If the snow has cleared, I highly recommend the hike up to Hurricane Hill.

Honorable mentions close to Port Angeles would be Lake Crescent, Salt Creek Rec area, and Dungeness Spit.

EDIT to add: It's still very much Spring here so the weather could go either way. Keep that in mind. It could be summer conditions or 50 and raining.

 

[Derrel]

I love the big, restaurant-like McDonald's on the edge of Port Angeles, at the "Y" on the highway. Inside, the decor is unlike ANY fast food place I have ever seen. Not kidding!

 

[JonFZ300]

I love the big, restaurant-like McDonald's on the edge of Port Angeles, at the "Y" on the highway. Inside, the decor is unlike ANY fast food place I have ever seen. Not kidding!

Totally agree. The Burger King in Kayenta, AZ is also a WW2 Navajo code talker museum.

 

[JoeW]

Folks, this is good stuff--keep it coming. And Jon--your insights and recommendations are excellent--exactly what I was looking for. I was kind of dreaming of Rialto Beach but worried it was too far away. I love me some haystacks and tidal pools. But there are so many good options at ONP. I'm just going to have to choose.

 

[JonFZ300]

Folks, this is good stuff--keep it coming. And Jon--your insights and recommendations are excellent--exactly what I was looking for. I was kind of dreaming of Rialto Beach but worried it was too far away. I love me some haystacks and tidal pools. But there are so many good options at ONP. I'm just going to have to choose.

There's tide pooling and a haystack at Salt creek rec area, and a little beach. Low tide on May 10th at Rialto is at 11:37am with a low of -0.66ft. The low tide on the 10th at Salt Creek is 12:48PM with a low of -1.02 feet. You could do both HR and SC in one day easy. Rialto is awesome though.

 

[Derrel]

Lake Crescent is super-beautiful, and the road runs right by it for quite a few miles. Perhaps you can scour Instagram and find a few hashtags that will lead you to some pics, and you can thus get an idea of some vantage points as they look from a typical smartphone's semi-wide-angle lens.

Lake Crescent - Wikipedia

 

[JonFZ300]

So what did you end up doing? I forgot to ask in May.

 

[JoeW]

What happened is....terrible. The client killed the work at the last minute (literally less than 4 days before I was to board my flight). I considered going out there on my own dime but it was too expensive. So I never made it out. I had hotel reservations, a schedule for my 1.5 days in ONP. A major disappointment.

 

[Derrel]

So what did you end up doing? I forgot to ask in May.

What happened is....terrible. The client killed the work at the last minute (literally less than 4 days before I was to board my flight). I considered going out there on my own dime but it was too expensive. So I never made it out. I had hotel reservations, a schedule for my 1.5 days in ONP. A major disappointment.

TERRIBLE, indeed!!!

 

[JonFZ300]

What happened is....terrible. The client killed the work at the last minute (literally less than 4 days before I was to board my flight). I considered going out there on my own dime but it was too expensive. So I never made it out. I had hotel reservations, a schedule for my 1.5 days in ONP. A major disappointment.

Dang sorry to hear that. You need more than one day anyway.

What did you have scheduled?