Near Olympic National Park South Coast Route
Near Olympic National Park South Coast Route
Near Olympic National Park South Coast Route
One of the rope ladders on the trail.
Near Olympic National Park South Coast Route
Lots of rocks and driftwood to conquer!
Near Olympic National Park South Coast Route
Heading back to the trailhead.

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Hike Route

Olympic National Park South Coast Route

5.0 (2 Ratings)
An adventurous trip through protected wildlife area beaches and rainforest overland routes with fun obstacles
15.5
mi
Distance
2,069
ft
Gain
strenuous
Difficulty
BirdingCommonly BackpackedRiver/CreekViewsWaterfallWildlife

Route Details

Flatter
Steeper
15.51mi
Distance
2,069ft
Elevation Gain
2,298ft
Elevation Loss
40%
Max Grade
371ft
High Point
1ft
Low Point
Path Type
Point to Point
Description
The route is very straightforward to navigate as you are just doing a straight through route along the coast and shuttling back from the exit back to where you started. You can start from either end, but beginning from Third Beach Trailhead in the north, you hike through the woods down to the beach. Traveling across the beach toward Strawberry bay Falls, you take an overland route before reaching the falls to get past Taylor Point. Returning to the beach at Taylor Point, you need the tide to be around 4.5' or lower to traverse to the beach and continue. You travel on the beach up to Scotts Bluff where you scramble up bluffs again to bet behind Scott's Bluff and come back to the beach again on the other side. There is a camping area here by Scott Creek.Continuing on shortly after Scott Creek, you have another place where the tide needs to be around 4 feet or lower for you to pass by on the rocky beach. You pass by a couple points on the beach, Strawberry Point and Toleak Point, both of which have lots of camping areas just inside the tree line. Continuing along the beach past Toleak Point, you eventually reach another overland route following Goodman creek trail. This route takes you past a lovely waterfall on Falls Creek, then to a crossing of Goodman creek which you'll be getting wet for. The trail returns to the beach shortly after, and you follow the beach for a long way until you reach Mosquito creek.Mosquito creek is another crossing you'll be getting wet for, and right after it you climb the bluffs again on a trail that takes you up to a large camping area overlooking the ocean. Leaving this campground, you continue overland through some muddy, thick terrain behind Hoh head and eventually pop back out on the beach again after climbing down a steep ladder in the rock face with assistance from a rope. After a short beach hike you approach an area strewn with large rocks and boulders where you have to do a lot of rock hoping or climbing and you can only cross this area when the tide level is about 2 feet or lower. Once through that, you continue on the beach to the mouth of the Hoh river where you pick up the Oil City Trail following along the banks of the Hoh River to your exit point.

Route Conditions

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Contributors
Tyson Gillard