Adventures with Holly & Bryan

“That’s the only hike we’ve done in Olympic National Park that I regret,” said Bryan as we reached the parking lot.

I nodded. My legs felt heavy and slightly mashed. I sat on the edge of the passenger seat and pried my shoes off, wiggling my sweaty and dusty toes.

We’d just descended from the Mount Storm King trail on the north side of Olympic National Park. Much-heralded in hiking reviews as one of the top hikes in Olympic National Park, we couldn’t resist checking out the intriguingly named Mount Storm King.

But after hiking the Mount Storm King trail, I think the hype is likely related to the cool name and the prestige associated with a challenging uphill slog. The scenery is nice, but not a standout on the Olympic Peninsula’s deep roster of bucket list hikes.

In today’s post, I’ll share an overview of our experience hiking the Mount Storm King trail so you can know before you go. Have you already done the hike? Let me know in the comments what you thought!

Mount Storm King Trailhead

I’ll admit the Mount Storm King trailhead is pretty great. It’s right next to the shore of Lake Crescent, and you can see the blue-green lake itself from one of the parking lots. It has clean bathrooms with flush toilets. The Storm King Ranger Station is right next to the trail, so you can easily learn more about the area before or after your hike.

There’s no Olympic National Park fee booth to be found, which avoids the traffic backups that can occur at other park entrances. According to most websites, the standard national park entrance fee is probably still required, though. We didn’t realize this, so we didn’t display our national park pass on the windshield, but it’s likely a good idea.

Navigating to the Storm King Ranger Station will get you to the trailhead. If the first parking lot you come across is full, keep going—that was the case when we visited, but there was hardly anyone in the second lot.

The Mount Storm King trailhead itself is marked with a brown sign as the “Marymere Falls Nature Trail.” This can be confusing since you’re looking for Mount Storm King, but you’re in the right place. It’s because the first part of the hike is shared with the popular hike to Marymere Falls. The signage in general isn’t fantastic, so I’d recommend downloading the Mount Storm King trail map from AllTrails so you can follow along.

Mount Storm King Trail Overview

The Mount Storm King trail starts out innocuously—a flat woodland trail that winds past a beach-level view of Lake Crescent and through a rainforest whose understory is thick with ferns.

Keep an eye out on your left for a junction where the Mount Storm King trail branches off from the trail to Marymere Falls. It’s marked, but with laminate signage that looks temporary (see photo).

This is where the trail starts to climb. From this point, it climbs continuously via a series of seemingly perpetual switchbacks. It’s a great place to get in your cardio training!

The Mount Storm King trail is an out-and-back hike that’s just 4.1 miles altogether. The difficulty doesn’t come from its length, but from its steepness. Because of the grade, I’d recommend shoes with good traction and hiking poles if you have them.

For those in reasonably good physical fitness, most of the Mount Storm King trail is challenging but totally hikeable. We do a fair amount of casual hiking and jogging, and we found it to be intense but achievable.

But for such an unusually steep hike with an unusually high reputation, I anticipated a knock-your-socks-off view at the end. The hike is just anticlimactic.

As you approach the end of the trail, views of Lake Crescent do begin to materialize. The view is somewhat impressive, but I found the views from below (along the lakeshore) to be more striking. Along the lakeshore, the surrounding forest is lush and the colors more vivid. From the high cliffs, the trees are increasingly stunted, and the understory dusty. We hiked on a somewhat hazy late summer day, with the prelude to heavy wildfire smoke just beginning to cloud the view.

Somewhat past the initial lake views, the trail abruptly reaches a sign that notes “End of Maintained Trail.”

A hiker we passed recommended continuing past the sign for a bit, to catch another lake view. The trail beyond this point becomes narrow and rockier and dustier, but not particularly difficult. Another lake view indeed materializes. It feels a bit like looking down on a distant landscape from an airplane window.

That’s when the ropes appear. To get to the very top viewpoint on the Mount Storm King trail, you’ll need to climb up the last section using unmaintained ropes. Past visitors have left a smattering of gloves at the base that you’re welcome to borrow to protect your hands. There’s a fun aura of camaraderie here. Hikers lean against the rocks and size up the ropes, deciding whether to go or stay. Hikers on the way down share stories from the top.

We weighed climbing up the rope scramble for another lake view versus heading back to town for omelets or chicken fajitas…

I might have made a different call on a different day, but I was also pregnant…so on balance I decided to play it safe and head for the chicken fajitas.

Since we didn’t do this last rope section, it’s possible the final lake view is out of this world. Maybe.

The hike down the Mount Storm King trail is where we noticed the steepness even more than on the way up—this is where those high-traction shoes and poles would have come in handy.

I think I’d always wonder about Mount Storm King if we didn’t check it out, so I don’t really regret going. But I probably wouldn’t do it again.

If you’re still on the fence, check out our video of the Mount Storm King trail for a virtual tour before you go!

Other Adventures in the Pacific Northwest

Thanks for joining us at Mount Storm King! For more travel ideas in the Pacific Northwest, check out our PNW Trip Planner. You can find adventures near you and filter by season and difficulty level. There are weird and wonderful things to explore any time of year. The trip planner links to blog posts to help you plan your next adventure.

Happy exploring!