Fresh food along the Washington coast.
Washington’s 3,600-square-mile Olympic Peninsula, which expands across Puget Sound from Seattle, has a rugged beauty, with temperate rain forests filled with wandering elk, mountains that peak at Mt. Olympus, and rivers teeming with salmon. This scenery makes for an unbeatable backdrop as you indulge in some simple, old-fashioned fun and dig for razor clams on the peninsula’s western beaches. Go during low tide any time of year (which happens during the daytime, from October to April, and in the evening, in the fall and winter), and collect a bounty of the creatures, which are prized for their meatiness and size (the suckers grow up to six inches in length).
Copalis Beach
Pull on your waders, grab your “clam gun”—it works better than a shovel—and head to razor-clam central. You’ll need a permit first, though—several local stores sell them, or you can get them online.
Roosevelt Dining Room
The dining room at Lake Quinault Lodge has some of the area’s best cuisine—try the slow-roasted Pacific salmon or beer-battered Alaskan cod.
Kalaloch Lodge
The property is the only beachfront hotel in the park, opt for one of the ocean-view log cabins.
Lochaerie Resort
Book the “Colonel Bob,” with two bedrooms and a wraparound porch.
