Here’s a short report on Olympic Hot Spring in Olympic National Park in western Washington.
TL;DR hot spring with decent climb and beautiful riding. Some walking. Nudity allowed.
[Pics](https://imgur.com/gallery/rZqNQfr) NSFW
Link seems to not work – try [this](https://imgur.com/user/convergeearth).
[Route (one way)](https://ridewithgps.com/routes/44177112)
Distance (One Way): 10.8mi (17.4km). Around 1mi (1.6km) of hike-a-biking. +2,200ft (-670m), -440ft (-130m)
Terrain: mostly paved, some really easy gravel, tiny bit of hiking.
Accommodation: closed campground, no bathrooms beyond the start of the ride. 1 river to fill at. Unlimited baths available.
This could be a day trip, but we cycled 20mi to the park before starting the main route and had to cycle 20mi home after finishing the trip, so we broke it into two half-days.
Make your way to the Madison Falls trailhead. There’s a gate on the road past the trailhead, head up that road for a short while and you’ll see a bypass trail to the left. The trail isn’t bikable unless you’re a psychopath but it’s rather short. On the other side is more road (the bypass went around a massive washout from the Elwha River).
The road up the mountain is beautiful. It’s in great condition and well shaded with a nice breeze. There are a few nice views and it’s rideable all the way to the Olympic Hot Spring trailhead. The gain is around 2000ft over 6 miles.
At the hot springs trailhead, it says no bikes. We took ours anyway. Eventually you’ll reach a landslide with a small trial that may or may not be rideable. We walked our bikes just out of safety. There’s a nice stream to fill water at with a tiny bridge over it that isn’t suitable for bikes. We walked most of the way to the hot springs, but there are a few areas that are rideable.
There’s a campground (for camping haha) but there’s also a sweet solo campsite after the 2nd or 3rd pool as you continue on the trail after crossing the larger log bridge. We got lucky and were the only people there this night. (Side note: on our way back we saw at least 8 backpackers and 4 cyclists heading up to camp, so we really did get lucky.)
There are around 10-15 pools, 3 of which being most ideal. There’s one towards the beginning which is rather large (the right side is hottest), another further up the trail, and the nicest one is the last one.
Overall it probably takes around 2 hours max to climb to the springs and an hour to get back down.
by sunnytoes22