An adventure hiking elopement in Olympic National Park, Washington State featuring waterfalls, Hurricane Ridge, the rainforest, and Lake Crescent.
Olympic National Park is a dream for anyone who can’t pick which backdrop they want for their photos. If you love the Pacific Northwest and want a bit of everything, this is your park. You can find rocky coastline, rainforest, snow capped mountains, waterfalls, and massive lakes surrounded by mountains. This park also isn’t nearly as busy as Mt. Rainier and some other national parks. The park is expansive and gives you all sorts of options to pick from.
These two wanted to see the best of the park so we made sure to stop at all the highlights.
Kind words from the couple:
I can not recommend Venturing Vows enough. Aside from her photography style another amazing thing about Miki is that she is detail oriented/over prepared, meaning you never have to worry! She has back up plans for her back up plans. My husband never really likes to take photos but she even made him feel comfortable and they had conversations through out the day as well, so it was nice that he was able to enjoy the experience as well and feel comfortable. Thank you again for making this experience so easy.
Hurricane Ridge Elopement Photos
We actually took these photos the day before because some sassy rain decided to cover up the mountains on the day we had planned. The weather had rain for 48 hours with one sunny gap. I checked the daily and hourly forecast as long as I could. The sunny window actually only showed for a couple hours before being updated to cloudy conditions on the forecast. Since the mountains get covered by rain clouds, we took the chance on the slice of sun in hopes the mountains would show.
This is a great example of how we generally deal with rain during elopements. I get it, you don’t want to stand in pouring rain in your nice attire and carefully done hair and makeup. You also can’t always up and move every bit of plans. There’s a lot of gaps between fully rescheduling your day and suffering through an all day rain storm.
Dog Friendly Rainforest Hike in Olympic National Park
Olympic National Park has more dog friendly locations than most national parks! With some flexibility, you can easily include your pups in your day. Olympic National Park has this web page with locations that are dog friendly.
Bringing your dogs is a lot like bringing kids along. They will definitely add more work to the day so make sure you’re happy with that trade-off. Consider having part of the day with your pets and part without. Also keep in mind how your pet usually behaves when outdoors in new places. If you’ll be stressing about a dog being reactive, it may not be worth it. I’ve also had plenty of dogs tag along where it was barely noticeable they were along.
Washington Coast Beach Portraits
Waterfall Elopement Portraits in Olympic National Park
Olympic National Park is never short of waterfalls! There’s lots of options depending on other locations you want to visit and how much hiking you’re up for. Seriously, there’s a waterfall for any spot you pick. For this day, we wanted something short (we had too much cool scenery to see) and dog friendly.
Rainforest Vow Exchange and Lakeside Portraits
For Olympic National Park as of 2026, you don’t need a permit for a vow exchange if you have less than 5 people present. If you have folks coming along that exceed that, make sure to contact the park for a permit. Regardless, I always recommend checking in with the park for your particular scenario and to check-in for any rule changes. For more information on permits, check out Olympic National Park’s webpage!
Olympic National Park Vow Renewal on Film
All of my elopement packages come with one roll of 35mm film. While 95% of galleries are in digital, that roll of film adds something special to the gallery. Here’s some of my favorites from these two’s day.
For more information, check out my elopement packages or contact me to start planning your day!
Thinking of eloping in Olympic National Park? Check out these other resources!
