Crater lake, Mt. Rainier & Olympic

[classctioga73]

Need fed back for these three parks, thinking of going summer 2017 and wanted info on things to do places to stay. We have a 32' class C and 2 kids ages 10-12. how many days at each park?
I know Crater lake looks cool but haven't heard much about Rainier and Olympic.
any feed back would be appreciated.

[Drbolasky]

Crater Lake - like others have said, it depends on what you want to do. If hiking is on the agenda, plan on spending a couple of days. At a minimum, hike down the trail to the lake level and take the boat tour. It is, however, a steep ascent coming out, so I hope you're all in good physical condition. We visited Crater Lake on July 9, 2009 - the boat had only been in operation about a week. Take plenty of bug repellant, but be prepared to get bugged by bugs anyway. If you're lucky like we were, you'll be able to stop along the road and have a summertime snowball fight - yes, there was that much snow left in the woods in July!

We stayed at Collier Memorial State Park, about 30 minutes south of Crater Lake in Chiloquin. Gorgeous setting and immaculately clean. There is a Pacific Northwest logging museum attached to the park - so if any of you have an interest in history this could be worth checking out. Incredible collection of all kinds of logging equipment.

[Kaz]

classctioga73 wrote:
Need fed back for these three parks, thinking of going summer 2017 and wanted info on things to do places to stay. We have a 32' class C and 2 kids ages 10-12. how many days at each park?
I know Crater lake looks cool but haven't heard much about Rainier and Olympic.
any feed back would be appreciated.

I'm not an expert, but we did spend a few days at Olympic and a day at Rainier this summer, so here goes:

Olympic has three distinct areas: mountains, rain forest, and ocean. We stayed at the Elwha Dam RV Park outside of Port Angeles, which gave us OK access (but with fairly long drives) to all 3 areas. For us, 3-4 days in the area was enough to get a decent exposure to the area: one day to explore and hike around the mountains, one day for the rain forest and coastline, one day to explore the northern end of the park and the rest of the peninsula, which included a trip out to Cape Flattery (which is the most northwest point in the continental United States). It is also the most beautiful coastline I've ever seen, easily rivaling Big Sur and Maine. A little summary of our trip is here: http://skiprd.com/?p=927.

For Rainier, we were staying down in Dupont, where Son#2 is stationed, and only did a day trip. My impression, though, is that 2-3 days would be more than enough. One day to go to the visitor center and do the hikes in and around that area, plus another day or two to hike around and explore some of the other areas, if you're into that sort of thing.

At National Parks, we typically do ranger-guided walks and evening programs, but the logistics didn't permit such on this trip. If you're similarly inclined, you should work that into the plans for where you stay and how long you're there. We did scope out some of the campgrounds, and none of the Olympic in-park campgrounds would have worked for us (we couldn't get to all of the campgrounds, and of those that we could have gotten to almost all of the sites are very small and none had even electrical hookups).

Our trip out west included Badlands, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and Glacier, and so it's hard for Olympic and Rainier to measure up against that competition. Still, we had a nice time at both and we're glad we went.

Skip

[Roy_Lynne]

I live at the base of Mt Rainier and go often but if I were you, I would camp at La Pine Or State Park and drive up to Crater Lake for the day. On the way to Mt Rainier, I'd stop at Mt Saint Helens for a look and I'd wave at Mt Rainier as you pass it by. It is a beautiful mountain but just a beautiful mountain. I'd grab Hwy 101 at Olympia and go up the east side and spend at least one night at Fort Worden State Park. Then I'd go and spend a couple days at Port Angeles. If you have a passport or enhanced drivers licence, I'd take the ferry to Victoria for just a day trip, and I'd also check out Hurricane RIdge. From Port Angeles, first I'd stop at Ruby Beach for a lock and some beautiful picture taking. Then I'd go to the Hoh, if you have a small RV but if not, check out Kalaloch.

[DanNJanice]

classctioga73 wrote:
Need fed back for these three parks, thinking of going summer 2017 and wanted info on things to do places to stay. We have a 32' class C and 2 kids ages 10-12. how many days at each park?
I know Crater lake looks cool but haven't heard much about Rainier and Olympic.
any feed back would be appreciated.

To some degree I consider most of these parks to be "one hit wonders", unless your family likes to hike/bike... then you could spend a lot of time at any of them.
If it were me, I would set aside two days for Crater Lake. Then cut over and drive up the Oregon coast. Spend the rest of the trip up by Seattle (note I did not say spend it only at the parks). Do see the parks, but there is much more to see. Take in some good food in Seattle. Take a ferry ride over to the San Juan islands, maybe Friday Harbor. Take a whale watching tour. Mount St. Helens, North Cascades National Park. Visit Vancouver BC.

[Murphsmom]

We were just there earlier this month, too, and also ran into the road construction on the west side. We were fortunate to get stopped right at the parking lot for one of the viewpoints, so pulled off and took pictures until the pilot car returned.

Since we were there after Labor Day, some of the trails, etc were closed for the season.

We didn't stay at the campground run by the park concessionaire, but instead camped at Diamond Lake campground, which is just four miles from the north entrance to the park. It is a fairly typical Forest Service facility, but there are hot showers and flush toilets, along with conveniently located water hydrants. The lake is quite nice, and your kids could swim or fish. Loop M is the one we stayed in. The space right up the way from ours was a nice pull through. I believe that they take reservations, but you might want to check on that if you are interested.

Sorry about the large photo. I've tried twice to resize it, but for some reason it isn't working today.

[donkeydew]

depends on what you wish to do or see, olympic np is 1400 square miles and rainer is about 350 square miles. you can easily spend a couple weeks at each and not come close to enjoying all of it and the surrounding area.

[Lauren]

Just a heads up.....we were just at Crater Lake again and they have about 2 miles of the road around on the west side torn up. One way traffic with pilot vehicle. Can be 1/2 hour or more wait. But worth it.