Customer Reviews

Hiking Olympic National Park

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I ordered the three Olympic Mountains trail guides that seemed most highly recommended -- Molvar, Blair, and Wood -- and was impressed by each. I needed a guide for a 7 to 10 day visit to Olympic, of which I had no prior knowledge. Wood's book is definitely the most comprehensive and technical of the three. If I lived near Olympic or had more time, it would definitely be my first choice. Blair's book of day hikes is also an excellent book, with useful topo maps and a 1 - 5 star rating system that makes choosing the day's hike that much easier, especially for out-of-towners. It is chattier than Wood, in a sort of happy-day-hike way (pointing out picnic spots and giving more local history, for example), and includes hikes from a few to 10+ hours. The happy medium between these two books is Molvar. It is written in a friendly narrative, but with enough information to put together a several-days hike. Its weak point is its lack of topo maps, but the trail maps are still very useable, and the elevation profiles are helpful. It also includes beach trails not found in Blair.

Molvar's book is a fine trail book, but it is light on trails, light on details and light on facts. He cuts several trails worth exploring and I have found Robert Woods Olympic Mountain Trail Guide to be consistently better on facts. The upside to Molvar's Guide (and why I have it) is the inclusion of the beach trails and the elevation profiles. The profiles are extremely useful. So heres my recomendation for this book... Use it to plan your trip, but leave it at home. Use Robert Wood's guide to lead you.

I am a voulunteer Back-country Ranger for Olympic National Park, and this book is in my pack every time I head out into the back-country. His details are just what I want. I do not care for books that are so indepth that you know the hike before you start. What adventure is in that. He describes the location of back-country camp sites better than other authors. His book is very user friendly. Highly recommended.

Rugged beaches. Tide pools. Glaciers. Dripping rain forests. Moss-covered old growth. Rivers and lakes. Olympic National Park has it all. Having just spent a memorable week there, I was able to see all of these things and more with Molvar's helpful hiking guide. Following an informative Introduction (pp. 1-21), this guide is organized by area: Sol Duc-Lake Crescent trails (pp. 29-50), Elwha River-Hurricane Ridge trails (pp. 51-85), Rainforest trails (pp. 86-121), Hood Canal Country trails (pp. 122-170), "Western Approaches" (pp. 171-211), and Olympic Coastline hikes (pp. 213-235). Throughout the book, black-and-white photos depict these areas.

I relied upon this guide to locate and hike the Sol Duc Valley, Hurricane Hill, Shipwreck Coast, and Hoh Rainforest trails. I also saw many other visitors in the Park with Molvar's book in hand. Olympic Park has a lot to experience, and Molvar's hiking guide includes everything but the rain.

G. Merritt

The problem with this guide is that although it has nothing specifically wrong with it, the book has nothing specifically to recommend it.
The maps are better than some, but aren't topographic maps you can actually navigate by. The trail descriptions are dry and boring and tend to overemphasize the vegetation one is likely to find or the geological features that really have little to do with how your feet are reacting to the trail.
Finally, I suspect that most Olympic National FOREST managers resent having the several hundred miles of their trails listed as being in Olympic National PARK. That won't matter to your boots, but I'm guessing the author won't win any popularity contests on the Olympic Peninsula.
If you're looking for a great backpacking guide to the Olympic Mountains, I'd suggest Robert L. Wood's Olympic Mountains Trail Guide. If you're planning on day hikes, I don't think you can beat the new Day Hike! Olympic Peninsula, by Seabury Jr. Blair

This book is copyright 1995, and its entries seem to be every bit this out-of-date. Of those I know, one trail re-opened years ago is listed as closed; one trail marked is no longer; one trail missing has been around for years. I can only assume trails closed for years are listed as open. The maps are likewise poor, missing many details such as maybe half the privy locations I know of and at least one trail where there is none. The trail descriptions look encouraging at first but as I read them more closely provide little information useful for predicting how a group might fare on the journey.

At a minimum, an updated version of this book is overdue.

Maybe I expect too much of a trail guide, but it almost makes me wish Ira Spring had a book covering the Olympic coast. On the bright side, the best thing about this dearth of coverage is that it helps keep the coast in relative wilderness.

I have used this great book by Eric Molvar to plan many great day and over night trips in Olympic National Park and Forest. This book comes highly recommended by someone that spends most of their time in the back country.

Although I am a huge fan of Falcon guides, this edition definitely let me down. Unfortunately it doesn't differentiate between Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest trails. This becomes a big deal when you spend a significant amount of time planning your trip only to arrive at the trailhead and find that you need an Olympic National Forest permit, because the trailhead parking falls in the national forest, not the national park, and you need to drive back 15 miles to get one. If you are prepared with a National Parks pass, not a National Forest pass, this is definitely frustrating. In fact, a significant number of trails in the book are in the national forest, not the national park. Because this is an older book (1995) it also doesn't include some of the nicer Falcon guide features found in the newer books like the trails being broken down into categories in the beginning based on the types of features the trail has (i.e. waterfalls versus alpine meadows). It also doesn't include any attempt at topo maps, which is a definite downside. I'm still a fan of the Falcon guides, but I think I'll stick to the ones that are more recently published from now on...

guide book of the Olympic Pennisula. It is the book I carry most often in my pack (though I have a bad habit of cutting out the pages I need - my book is about dead) I have had this book for over 2 years and is well used. I like Erik's style of writing, and that he gives distances at major points along the way. Wood's book is good also, but a little old school for my taste. Thanks to Erik, I found myself in Badger Valley, Grand Valley, Royal Basin and Flapjack Lakes this summer, some of the prettiest hikes I have ever done. If you like this, check out his North Cascade book also.

The problem with this guide is that although it has nothing specifically wrong with it, the book has nothing specifically to recommend it.
The maps are better than some, but aren't topographic maps you can actually navigate by. The trail descriptions are dry and boring and tend to overemphasize the vegetation one is likely to find or the geological features that really have little to do with how your feet are reacting to the trail.
If you're looking for a great backpacking guide to the Olympic Mountains, I'd suggest Robert L. Wood's Olympic Mountains Trail Guide. If you're planning on day hikes, I don't think you can beat the new Day Hike! Olympic Peninsula, by Seabury Jr. Blair