We’re not even sure that we should be reviewing this one… maybe we just need to keep it to ourselves? Cuz, it’s that cool! But since it's part of the Olympic NP campground list, it's publicly known, so here goes...
Upon arrival, we grabbed our beverages, our chairs, and walked the short path from our campsite to the shore of Ozette Lake. No sooner had we settled in to watch the evening’s color change than scores of water fowl claimed their nightly roots and an otter swam by on its way into its home in the grass – already totally worth the drive in.
This small campground lies at the end of a long winding, but well paved, road in Olympic National Park. Getting there is part of the adventure, but from here one can hike out to the western most point of the contiguous 48 US states, Cape Alava. The sheltered lake offers many great miles of paddling and small boat fishing holes, as well as access to some great backcountry camping spots.
We paddled from the campground to Ericson Bay and then hiked the very wet trail out to the Pacific coast, which was a great day trip. The next day we took the path more traveled out to the coast via a boardwalk trail which will take you to Cape Alava and you can walk along the beach for miles and miles. Be mindful of the native territory in this area though and head the warnings. Absolutely worth every moment!
The campsites are smallish and most won’t accommodate large RV’s but have a lot of grass area for tents, picnic tables, and fire rings. The toilets are a bit of a walk as they are located at the Ozette Visitor’s Center. They have clean, flush toilets and running sinks, fresh drinking water, but no showers. The campground could really use a couple of vault toilets as the toilets are a 1/4 mile away, and it's the only reason we gave this a 4 out of 5. Trash and recycling is located near the visitor's center as well lots of information about hiking in the area.
Many of the sites have good to decent open sky for solar power and satellite internet, the mobile phone service was non-existent. Nearby towns with any services are Neah Bay and Clallah Bay, which are both super cool to check out.