Hiking Highlights near Seattle in June?

Your schedule already sounds pretty packed! When visiting Seattle, I love Discovery Park. There are some very nice hikes, and it's in the city.

June evenings are long, so you should be able to make the most of your arrival day. Ballard is a cool neighborhood with shops and restaurants. It should be buzzing on a Friday. Plus, you can visit the Ballard Locks and watch the boats pass through. There is a small botanical garden located next to the locks.

Perhaps stop in Sequim or Port Townsend along the way to Port Angeles.

On a recent visit to Port Townsend, we discovered Bazaar Girls Yarn Shop. Even if you don't have any interest in yarn crafts, it is a delight for the eyes when you're strolling in the town. I haven't embroidered nor knit in at least 3 decades---I came away with several embroidery kits, a few little gifts, and a couple of little prints from the gallery within.

It would help to know where you plan to stay. If it were me, I would drop the Pike Place Market food tour and go directly from Sea-Tac to the Southworth Ferry and stay the night in Port Orchard or thereabouts. Saturday Hoh Rain Forest and Forks, stay somewhere on the coast or in Port Angeles. Sunday, Hurricane Ridge and ???, overnight in Port Angeles or get on the ferry and stay in Victoria. I would consider staying all 3 nights in Victoria (Sun/Mon/Tues) and driving directly back on Wednesday morning, but if your flight is too early for this, maybe Bainbridge? or Gig Harbor?
Bottom line, I think you need to choose one city (Seattle v Victoria) for your "city time" and one natural area (peninsula or Rainier) for your "natural beauty" time. If you choose Mt. Rainier, you should look at taking the Victoria Clipper from Seattle. I've never done it, so I can't comment on it.

Hi Robin,

If you do end up at Rainier, make sure you have a reservation to enter the park.

If staying in Seattle to hike, I second Discovery park - it's a great option without having to spend too much time driving based on what else you end up doing. If you're staying downtown, the Olympic Sculpture Park is a great spot to visit Friday evening and for sunset. You can walk there via the waterfront.

Washington Trails Association is an excellent resource we have in the state for all trail information. It provides hike descriptions, directions, reviews from fellow hikers and shows you which type of pass you may need for your desired hike.

On the Washington Trails link provided up thread, there is a road condition map. Depending on when in June you may be out of luck at Rainier due to construction, closures, or snow (or all). Along with staffing issues that could make things even more uncomfortable, I would myself skip that location this year.

Depending on your flight arrival time on Friday, you could spend a fair amount of time in traffic just trying to get to downtown Seattle, especially if there are any events going on. Sunday at Pike Place Market is uncomfortably crowded and parking options are awful (I have recently gone there on a Sunday by car and it was...horrible). I second G3rryCee's suggestion you leave SeaTac airport and get as far as you can West for night one. Explore and hike along the way, stay in Port Angeles or Port Townsend, then go to Victoria and then back. It looks like you're planning to just walk on the ferry and not take the car? That's probably for the best as you might be out of luck getting a car reservation for some ferry crossings (FWIW, don't leave anything of value in your rental and make sure it's parked in a legal location).

Don’t even try for the Hoh Rainforest with this type of schedule. An often very overlooked short hike near Sequim is at the Dungeness wildlife refuge. Nice walk through forest and then down to a beach on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

At Port Angeles, go up Hurricane Ridge past the main visitor centers and parking lots to Hurricane Hill. A beautiful alpine hike. Wildflowers should be good. Often spot Marmots and sometimes distant bears. Usually lots of deer.

Do not try and do the Hoh (or anything else in ONP) as a day trip, it is just too far from Seattle.

Lots of good advice re Mt Rainier on here already.

The food tour at PPM is good, but I would opt to skip that and just get over to PA. The ferry will most likely have long lines, so be prepared to sit and wait for another boat. You don't want to go south and drive around as that would take far too long. Get to the ferry that morning as early as you possibly can.

Once on the peninsula there are several good places to do easy hikes. The Dungeness Spit, and you can go for as short or as long as you want( 10+ miles r/t if you do the whole thing), Hurricane Ridge, specifically Hurricane Hill (3+ miles r/t). Then you could also head over to Lake Crescent and do Marymere Falls (roughly 2 miles r/t). All of these will be very busy though so take note. You will need passes to park at each of these. Check www.wto.org for the details.

Do not try and drive back to Seattle upon your return from BC. The ferry arrives back in PA at 9, and that is far too late to try and ,are that drive. Mostly because the road is 2 lane, rural and there are lots of wildlife that can and do pop out in front of vehicles. My in-laws live over there and know not to even attempt making this drive in the evening. It is not recommended to try and drive back to Seattle on the same day as a flight, but in this case I would do that. Stay over night in PA, and get on the road very early in the morning. Do note that the Hood Canal Bridge can delay you a bit as it goes up for ship traffic and such. Instead of the ferry, you could drive south to Gig Harbor and then over to SEA. That would be a good 4-5 hour drive, but at least you are not at the mercy of a ferry.

In PA, the only decent place in town is the Olympic Lodge. Don't even consider the Red Lion. It has been somewhat redone, but is still a dump. PA shuts down early, so get off the ferry, go to Frugals (a local drive thru) and then check in to OL for the night. Get a reservation now as it is very popular.

Driving from Seattle to the Hoh can be done in a day, but it's a long day, mostly in the car. But if you go out that way, and find yourself near forks, head to La Push and take the hike to Second Beach.

For a more urban hike, go to Point Defiance in Tacoma. Miles of trails, great gardens, a wooden fort, the zoo and aquarium, and good beaches. Plus the eateries along Ruston Way.

For something very different, take the ferry across to Kingston and go to Port Townsend and walk the beaches there, or over to Port Angeles and into the Olympics and hike Hurricane Ridge.

And, another long drive, but one you should seriously consider, Mt St Helens.

Another urban place, rarely on a tourist agenda, is old Ft Lawton, in Discovery Park. It's one of my favorite hide away spots, especially the Cultural Center, where you can picnic and watch the boats coming out of the locks. On a really clear day you can see all the way to Canada. Hike down to the lighthouse and you have another great vista in front of you. Stop in Magnolia and get your lunch at the Metro Market.

Just in case your girls can't miss Pike Place Market, here is some encouragement, as a local and serious PPM fan. I used to work in downtown Seattle and go there almost daily for food, lunch, the vibe - and I still meet friends there regularly. Watch the guys throw the fish! Take in the lovely new walkway! See the giant head at the nearby free sculpture park! Eat at one of the many large or small restaurants! You can eat fancier (Pink Door or Place Pigalle are two of my very faves) or take food of any kind you desire to outside seating and eat while admiring the bay with the Big Wheel and ferries crossing. You can avoid parking headaches by taking Light Rail from Seatac to downtown (get off at Symphony rather than Westlake or Pioneer Square.) I love, love, love the Market. Whatever you do, enjoy the P-NW - and plan to return.

KGC--The road to Mt St Helens washed out a couple years ago so the main draw, Johnston Ridge Observatory, is out for now. You can drive part way up the road and hike the Hummocks trail, but the road is washed out about 7 miles before JRO. They are hoping to have it reopened by 2027.

Great insider advice, thank you all so much. I really don't want to spend the whole short vacation driving around the whole time, but my dazzling memories of Paradise at Rainier had me biased. It does seem as if it will be too snowy still, and too far with the other things we have planned.

My teens will want to see Pike Place Market and the Insta sights, so I think we'll now do this our first morning. The second morning we'll head out early toward Port Townsend, Port Angeles and do some hiking up that way. I like the sound of Hurricane Hill. Thanks for the tip on not driving back to Seattle in the dark. I think the plans are all tidied up and we'll have a wonderful time!

Port Townsend is a nice little town. On your way to hurricane Ridge, you might stop around Sequim at one of the many lavender farms. The lavender is in bloom now, and the farms are really nice, IMO.

As a Seattle-ite I have to say that Pike Place is worth doing. Yes, it might be crowded and I agree with the advice not to drive and deal with parking, but there's great food to be found and the vendors selling crafts etc. are actually required to make everything by hand and for it to be locally produced. Yes it's a touristy thing, but it has managed to maintain it's local flair at the same time. But, definitely skip the first Starbucks lol