The Olympic Peninsula is Washington's most complete RV trip — rainforest, Pacific coastline, mountain views, and a Hood Canal finale, all connected by one highway. Four stops, each worth staying at for a few nights. No ferry required, and a clockwise route that gets easier as you go.
US-101 rings the Olympic Peninsula like a picture frame. You can technically drive the full circuit from Seattle in a long weekend, but that misses the point. Setting up and breaking down camp takes real time and energy — loading utilities, leveling the rig, running slides, reversing out of a site. Doing that every day is exhausting. Each stop on this route has enough to fill 2–3 nights comfortably, and most people who've done the loop wish they'd stayed longer rather than shorter. A week is a good trip. Ten days is a better one.
The route goes clockwise: north over the Hood Canal Bridge to Port Townsend, west along the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Sequim, south and around the base of the Olympics to the Pacific coast, then back up Hood Canal to return to Seattle. Every campground has at least water and electric hookups, full shower and restroom facilities, and paved or packed-gravel sites. The National Park campgrounds inside Olympic National Park — Hoh, Fairholme, Heart o' the Hills — are worth day trips from your hookup base. They're spectacular, but they're primitive with no hookups and limited big-rig space, so you're not staying overnight there.
One note for first-time trailer campers: the main skill this trip requires is backing into a hookup site. Practice that before you leave — even one session at a county park will build the muscle memory. Everything else on this route is straightforward driving on major highways with no switchbacks or tight mountain passes.
Fort Worden is the right place to start this trip. A decommissioned coastal artillery installation on the northern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, the park has full-hookup RV sites on the beach directly overlooking Puget Sound and the Cascade Range. Concrete gun emplacements, officers' quarters, and a parade ground are a 5-minute walk from your site. It eases you in — Victorian Port Townsend is walking distance, the site setup is easy, and you arrive without a full day of Olympic Peninsula driving behind you.
Take the Hood Canal Bridge from Seattle. The bridge is free in the westbound direction and straightforward for rigs up to 75 feet. From Port Townsend, Fort Worden is minutes from the ferry terminal and downtown. Spend your second day in Port Townsend — it has legitimately good restaurants, a historic downtown, and a lighthouse you can walk to from camp. Book well ahead; this one fills months out, especially in summer.
- Best for: Easing into the trip. Easy site setup, Port Townsend access, strong first-night campground vibe.
From Fort Worden, it's 45 minutes west on US-101 to Sequim Bay. The park sits in the Olympic rain shadow — Sequim gets less than 17 inches of rain a year, which is less than Los Angeles, and you can often see blue sky here when Port Angeles and the rest of the peninsula are socked in. Full-hookup sites accommodate rigs up to 45 feet on a sheltered saltwater bay with beach access and kayaking.
This is your base for Olympic National Park. The two best beginner-friendly day trips are Dungeness Spit (7 miles from camp — a 5-mile sand spit with a lighthouse at the end, flat and easy) and Hurricane Ridge (45 minutes, paved road all the way up, mountain meadows at 5,200 feet with Olympic panoramas). Both are manageable in a single day and neither requires your rig. Park at camp and drive your tow vehicle. If you have a third day here, the Hoh Rainforest is about 90 minutes south — one of the few temperate rainforests in the world and worth the drive.
- Best for: ONP exploration. Two days is the right amount of time here — one per day trip.
The drive from Sequim Bay to Twin Harbors is the longest leg — about 3 hours on US-101 south and west, down around the base of the Olympics. Pass through Forks (the Twilight town, worth a gas stop), and you'll cross from the green interior of the peninsula out onto the Pacific coast. Twin Harbors is in a low dune forest just 2 miles south of Westport, steps from the open Pacific Ocean. It's the most atmospheric stop on the loop.
A short trail through the dunes leads directly to the beach. Pacific Ocean sunsets from here are exceptional. Westport is Washington's deep-sea fishing capital — charter boats go out daily for salmon, halibut, and albacore. If you're not fishing, the beach itself is the activity. Note that Twin Harbors has a 35-foot max length. If you're in a longer rig, look at Grayland Beach State Park 6 miles south as an alternative — it accepts longer rigs.
- Best for: The Pacific Ocean leg of the loop. Sunset beach walks, Westport fishing, razor clam season (if timing aligns).
Potlatch is the decompression stop. On Hood Canal just south of Hoodsport, the park sits on the warmest saltwater beaches in Washington with the Olympic Mountains rising directly across the water. Water and electric hookups (no sewer) on 35 sites accommodate rigs up to 60 feet. The drive from Twin Harbors is about 2 hours north on US-101 — straightforward, no mountains, past Olympia and up the west side of the Canal.
This stop is optional depending on how much time you have. If you're running tight, the drive from Twin Harbors straight back to Seattle is about 2.5 hours and skips Hood Canal entirely. But if you have another night or two in you, Potlatch earns it — the evening light on the Olympics from the canal is hard to replicate anywhere else in the state, and the Hood Canal drive home the next morning is a pleasant way to end the trip. Seasonal shellfish harvesting with permits is a bonus when timing aligns.
- Best for: A quiet final stop. Hood Canal views, warm saltwater, easy drive home the next day.
Planning Notes for First-Timers
Rig size: The loop works best for rigs up to 35 feet due to Twin Harbors' max length. If you're 40–60 feet, swap Twin Harbors for Grayland Beach State Park (6 miles south, 60 ft max, also on the coast) or skip the coast leg and spend an extra night at Sequim Bay instead.
Reservations: Because each stop is worth 2–3 nights, you're booking more total site-nights than a typical trip — plan accordingly. Fort Worden fills 2–4 months out in summer; lock that one first. Sequim Bay books fast on summer weekends too. Twin Harbors and Potlatch are more available. Book all four at once on washington.goingtocamp.com as soon as you have dates. Washington State Parks reservations open 9 months in advance — set a calendar reminder if you're targeting a specific summer window.
National Park campgrounds: The campgrounds inside Olympic National Park (Hoh, Fairholme, Mora, Heart o' the Hills) are primitive — vault toilets, no hookups, limited big-rig access. They're worth a visit for the scenery, but plan to day-trip from your hookup site rather than overnight if you need power or water.
Hood Canal Bridge: The floating bridge on SR-104 closes for military submarine transit, typically for 1–4 hours. Check the closure schedule at wsdot.wa.gov before your drive to Fort Worden. If it's closed, the alternate route around through Bremerton adds about 1.5 hours.
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