Planning A Trip To Seattle, Washington?
Here’s What We Did To Spend Our 3-Day Weekend In The Far North-West Corner Of The Contiguous US!
Washington – A Brief Intro
Washington, the north-west most state of the contiguous US, has so much to offer. It is the home of two of the largest tech giants in the world – Amazon and Microsoft, along with a numerous other large cap companies. Most of them based in and around the popular city of Seattle. Apart from this, it is also a home to 3 US National Parks – Mt. Rainier, Olympic and North Cascades. All of these national parks have one thing in common – Mountains. So if you’re a Mountain person, like me, you are in for a treat. Although, people who love city experiences shouldn’t be disappointed as Seattle can be a great city to hang out in.
Washington – Our Places of Interest
Washington – The Itinerary
Weather –
We took this trip back in May 2019. Weather-wise, we were VERY lucky to have clear, sunny days throughout our trip of 3 days and 3 nights. The temperatures for the entire trip were in the range of 60-75 degrees farenheit or 20-25 degrees celcius. Just perfect.
Our Priorities –
Our priorities, in terms of the places we wanted to visit and the activities we wanted to do were set straight. We wanted to spend 1 day until the evening exploring Seattle, and the rest of the days, exploring areas surrounding Seattle. This included visiting a National Park – Olympic and Hiking – Mt. Storm King Trail.
The Itinerary –
Since we had our priorities straight, all we needed to do was organize a way to check off our list. Heres how we did it,
- Landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on a Thursday night
- Crashed at our friend’s apartment who lived in Downtown Seattle. Would recommend staying in Downtown as its closer to some of the popular places
- On our next day, Friday, we walked to Gum Wall, Public Market Centre, First Starbucks and The Great Seattle Wheel. Once we covered all of that, we drove to Snoqualmie Falls, Discovery Park and Kerry Park – Great place to see Seattle Skyline
View From My Friend’s Apartment 
Gum Wall 
The Great Seattle Wheel 
Snoqualmie Falls 
Discovery Park 
View From Kerry Park
- On Friday night we left for Port Angeles, where we had a booked a motel room at, Angeles Motel, 812 E 1st St #3607, Port Angeles, WA 98362. To get there we decided to take a ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island and drive the rest of the way. In doing so we saved about an hour – which was very essential as we were exhausted from our day’s sightseeing
- We reached the motel at midnight and finally went to bed
- The next morning, Saturday, we had breakfast at a nearby cafe, and drove to Hurrican Ridge which is in the Olympic National Park
On The Way To Hurricane Ridge 
Hurricane Ridge
- After spending some time looking at the beautiful snow-capped mountains of the Olympic Mountain Range, we drove to Lake Crescent, which is a fresh water lake. Which only makes it look so beautiful
- Once we were done admiring the beauty of the lake, we drove (a 5 min drive) to the trail-head parking for the Mt. Storm King trail. This was a very strenuous hike and it took about 3 hours to complete. The view from up top is decent but the hike is dangerously challenging and risky – which we fell in love with
- After the hike we set our destination to Cape Flattery and started with our drive at around 3.30 PM. On our way there we had a meal as we were starving after the hike
- We resumed our journey to Cape Flattery after having our lunch with a beautiful view and some Clam Chowder. We reached Cape Flattery by 6:00 PM, on time to catch the sunset (although it wasn’t the most beautiful sunset)
- By 7:00 PM, we started driving back. Only this time, we didn’t have a destination. Since we were so exhausted, mainly due to the hike, we were DESPARATELY hoping to find a motel. The location we were at had no network coverage and since none of the 4 of us had downloaded offline Google Maps, it seemed impossible to find one, so late, in the dark. Fortunately, after just a few miles, we found happiness – A motel with an “OPEN” light-sign. The motel – Bay Motel, 15562 WA-112, Sekiu, WA 98381, was really decent and very cheap
- As we pulled over, and walked in, to our relief, they had vacant rooms. We checked in to one of the rooms, and went straight to bed
- The next morning, Sunday, we had breakfast at Breakwater Restaurant, 15582 WA-112, Clallam Bay, WA 98326, which was right next to our motel. The best part about the restaurant was the view – across the narrow body of water was Canada
View From The Restaurant 
View From The Motel
- After wrapping up with our breakfast, we set our destination to Hoh Rainforest, which, as the name suggests, is a Rainforest. Here, we did a very short trail, about a mile, that walked us through lush green canopy of both coniferous and deciduous species, mosses and ferns.
- Finishing up our trail, we drove to our last and final destination of the weekend, Ruby Beach. The views were like no other beach that I’ve visited
- We stayed at the beach for about 20 mins, and started driving back to Seattle. It was a pretty long drive, took us about 3 hours to reach Seattle. Our flights were scheduled to depart the same night – red eye flights, thus ending an eventful weekend
Tips
- If going North-West, make sure to plan your activities in advance. There is no network coverage which makes it impossible to look something up on the internet. Also, download Offline Maps of that area in your Google Maps application
- Make sure you have good hiking boots if you decide on doing Mt. Storm King trail
- If you like Asian food, DO NOT SKIP Din-Tai Fung restaurant. This restaurant chain is only available on the west coast
Thank you for reading my travel experience to Washington, let me know in the comments if you find it informative.
The Introverted Traveler 