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A drive around the Olympic Peninsula on the famed Highway 101 will no doubt take you past a beautiful lake. The remote surroundings and peaceful nature make this a perfect place to relax after a day of hiking in the Olympic National Forest.
Lake Crescent
Even if you’re not staying at the historic Lake Crescent Lodge, it’s definitely worth a stop to explore the grounds, take in the scenery, and enjoy a comforting meal.
Originally built in 1916, the lodge is an ideal base for enjoying Olympic National Park… that is, if you make your reservations far enough in advance! There aren’t too many lodging options on the peninsula, so they tend to fill up rather quickly.
With 55 rooms at the Lake Crescent Lodge and a wide selection of available room types, families of all sizes are likely to find suitable accommodations. There are traditional lodge rooms, motel rooms, fireplace cabins, and cottages. The Singer Tavern Cottages (pictured) consist of 10 one-bedroom cottages and 3 two-bedroom cottages, all with lake and mountain views.
Heading to Olympic National Park with kids? You’ll definitely want to check out our other site ScavengerHuntKid.com where you can access our one-of-a-kind Olympic National Park Scavenger Hunt. We have a whole collection of national park scavenger hunts, along with an abundance of exciting indoor, outdoor, road trip, and other destination specific scavenger hunts.
No matter where you stay on property, you are likely to see the local wildlife as you wander the grounds. We saw this pair of deer from the parking lot!
There is also a restaurant on property where guests, locals, and passersby can enjoy a scrumptious meal in the dining room overlooking serene Lake Crescent.
Be sure to either make reservations in advance or be prepared to dine in the bar area, like we did. We made an impromptu stop by the lodge around dinner time and the dining room was already fully booked for the evening.
Sitting in the bar area wasn’t too bad; service was decent and the food was tasty, though over-priced (to be expected given the restaurant’s semi-isolated location).
Since we didn’t have the luxury of lake-front dining, we simply wandered around to the backside of the restaurant to watch the sun slowly dip behind the mountains in the distance.
The lodge property is perfectly designed with a dock and Adirondack chairs overlooking the calm blue waters of the lake.
Colorful canoes and kayaks dot the shoreline.
I imagine that when the sun is shining during the long days of summer, these boats are not on the shoreline, but rather floating gently in the middle of the lake, carrying families who are creating wonderful and lasting memories on beautiful Lake Crescent.