Where did the summer go? I’m not sure, but I think it is now in the history books. As we moved into fall the forecast for the higher elevations indicated a chance of snow. Luckily following that mid-September snow forecast was a window of ideal fall weather. It was time to load the backpacks and get a few miles on the boots before more snow made backpacking out of the question for the rest of 2025.
After departing North Cascade National Park we headed toward Whidbey Island and hopped the ferry to the Olympic Peninsula. We swung through Port Angeles to pick up our backcountry permit at the Olympic National Park wilderness information center, and the next morning we hit the trail out to the Olympic Coast from Ozette. The “Ozette Triangle” makes for a nice overnight loop if you want to get a taste for the Olympic Coast. At just over 9 miles round trip it’s not too long, but far enough to leave a lot of the crowd behind and see a bit of wild coastline.
We already had all our backpack gear out from our recent trip into the White Clouds, so we consulted the backpacking “want to go” list and started looking at trails in the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon. We found a lesser used trail that would still get us up to some lakes and before long we were on our way.
