Highway 101 Is Whole Again at the Hoh River: Your Olympic Peninsula Loop Guide

Introduction: The Loop Is Connected Again

There is exactly one road that circles the Olympic Peninsula, and for six days at a time this fall, it has been cut in half. Highway 101 — the 330-mile loop that strings together Port Angeles, Forks, the Hoh Rain Forest, and the wild Washington coast — has been closed to all traffic at the Hoh River Bridge, south of Forks, while crews made emergency repairs to the 95-year-old structure. At noon today, Tuesday, October 13, the bridge reopened to daytime travel, ending the third and final round-the-clock closure. The loop is whole again — with conditions every driver needs to know.

What Happened: Cracks Found in a 95-Year-Old Bridge

The Hoh River Bridge dates to 1931 and carries roughly 1,400 vehicles a day across the river on the only route down the western side of the peninsula. During an inspection, crews found cracks in a support beam and in steel members underneath the bridge, and the Washington State Department of Transportation moved quickly: the bridge, which is too narrow to keep a traffic lane open beside a work zone, has been shut completely three times since September 24, for six days each time, while damaged sections were removed and replaced.

The final full closure ran from 5 a.m. on October 8 to noon today, October 13. The work is not quite finished, though. Starting tonight, the bridge will close again from 7 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. for six consecutive nights, through the morning of October 19, while crews take down the scaffolding used for the repairs. After each closure period, the bridge is inspected before traffic is allowed back across. You can read the full schedule in WSDOT's announcement of the overnight closures, and the National Park Service's closure page for Olympic National Park tracks what the closure means inside the park.

One fact shapes every plan here: there is no local detour. When the bridge is closed, you cannot cross the Hoh River on Highway 101 at all. The only way around is the long eastern route around the peninsula, which the Park Service says adds at least four hours. Destinations north of the bridge — Port Angeles, Hurricane Ridge, Lake Crescent, Sol Duc, Forks, and the Hoh Rain Forest itself, which stays reachable from Forks — sit on one side; Kalaloch, the Queets valley, and Lake Quinault sit on the other. When the bridge reopens between closures, traffic crosses one lane at a time, alternating directions, at a reduced 25 mph speed limit.

The Drive: The Olympic Peninsula Loop, Counterclockwise

Most drivers start the loop from Seattle via the Edmonds–Kingston or Bainbridge ferry, then run it counterclockwise so the ocean-side stops build toward the end. The full circuit is about 330 miles on Highway 101 alone, and it deserves three days minimum. It is the Pacific counterpart to the great coastal drives further south — if you have driven Highway 1 through Big Sur, this is its rainforest twin: slower, greener, and far less crowded.

Don't-miss stops, in loop order:

• Port Angeles — the loop's natural base camp and gateway town, with the ferry to Victoria and the park's main visitor center.
• Hurricane Ridge — a 17-mile mountain road climbing from near sea level to a 5,242-foot summit parking area, with the Olympic range spread out in front of you.
• Lake Crescent — Highway 101 hugs the southern shore of this deep, startlingly blue glacial lake. Pull off for the short walk to Marymere Falls.
• Sol Duc Valley — a side road into old-growth forest, hot springs, and the trail to Sol Duc Falls.
• Forks — the logging town turned Twilight landmark, and the last real fuel and food stop before the coast.
• Hoh Rain Forest — an 18-mile side road east from Highway 101 to the Hall of Mosses, where bigleaf maples drip with moss in one of the finest temperate rainforests on Earth. Note that the Hoh sits north of the bridge, so it stays reachable from Forks even during closures.
• Ruby Beach and Kalaloch — south of the bridge, the highway meets the Pacific. Sea stacks, driftwood-strewn sand, and the famous Tree of Life clinging to an eroding bluff.
• Lake Quinault — the southern rainforest valley, with a quiet loop road around the lake and some of the largest trees in the world nearby.

South of Quinault, the highway turns inland through Aberdeen and Olympia to complete the circle — and, fittingly, the same US 101 that starts this loop runs all the way down the coast to San Francisco, where it crosses the bay on the Golden Gate Bridge.

Before You Go: Driving the Loop While Repairs Finish

1. Cross the Hoh River Bridge in daylight this week. Through the morning of October 19, the bridge closes every night from 7 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Plan to be across well before 7 p.m., or be settled on one side for the night.
2. Check conditions the morning you drive. WSDOT posts real-time status on its travel map and app, and the WSDOT project page for the Hoh River Bridge emergency repair carries the background and the latest schedule. The Park Service also maintains current Olympic National Park conditions and alerts — start there before any park side trip.
3. Expect one-lane alternating traffic and a 25 mph limit at the bridge. Even after the overnight closures end, the bridge returns to single-lane alternating traffic around the clock while longer-term repair plans are decided. Build in waiting time.
4. Fuel up in Port Angeles, Forks, or Aberdeen. Services are sparse on the western side of the peninsula, and a four-hour detour is the wrong time to run low.
5. Carry rain gear and offline maps. Cell coverage drops out for long stretches of the west side, and October on the peninsula is the start of the wet season — the rainforest earns its name.
6. Do not try to sneak around the closure. There is genuinely no alternative crossing. During any closure window, approaching from the wrong side means turning around and driving the long way around the peninsula.

When to Go

Mid-October is a genuinely good window: summer crowds are gone, the rainforests are at their greenest as the rains return, and coastal storms make the beaches dramatic. The trade-off is shorter days and the bridge's nighttime closures this week, both of which reward an unhurried itinerary. November through February brings the heaviest rain and the best storm-watching at Kalaloch, but the least daylight. Late spring and early summer offer the driest roads and longest evenings. Whenever you go, check the bridge's status first — this fall proved the loop's single point of failure deserves respect.

The Bottom Line

Highway 101 around the Olympic Peninsula is one of the great American drives precisely because it is the only way through — one road tying together mountain ridges, glacial lakes, rainforests, and surf-pounded beaches. The Hoh River Bridge is that road's weakest link and its hardest worker, a 1931 bridge still carrying the whole western peninsula on its back. It reopened at noon today. Cross it in daylight, drive it slowly, and give the loop the days it deserves.