How to Spend 1 Day Visiting Cape Flattery

Spending a day in Cape Flattery is one of the best things to do in Olympic National Park.

We spent a day exploring Cape Flattery while we were staying in Olympic National Park and the contrast from being on trails like Mount Storm King, to being on the coast was an insane feeling!

The views of the bright blue ocean from the cliffsides at Cape Flattery are just stunning. There are lots of little trails that you can choose to hike that will take you to different beaches and viewpoints. If I was to compare the views at Cape Flattery to anywhere else, it would be the Oregon coastline with its huge rock formations surrounded by swirling ocean which can be viewed from high above on the cliffs.

This 1 Day Cape Flattery Itinerary will provide you with everything you need to spend 1 incredible day exploring the Northwestern most tip of the USA, including what permit you need, where to eat, the best things to do, where to stay nearby and a detailed 1 day itinerary.

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Everything You Need to Know about Visiting Cape Flattery

Where is Cape Flattery

Cape Flattery is located on the Northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State USA. The closest small town is ­­­Neah Bay with the closest larger town being Forks which is a 1.5 hour drive away. People come to Neah Bay from all over the world because Cape Flattery is one of the best things to do in Neah Bay.

Click here to open the map in Google Maps!

Permits for Cape Flattery

When visiting the trails or beaches around Cape Flattery, you will need to purchase a Makah Recreation Permit for $20 per vehicle which will need to be displayed on your dashboard. The permit will then last you for the calendar year. Permits can be obtained in person with cash from:

• Makah Marina – Open until 5:00 p.m.
• The Museum at the Makah Culture and Research Center – Open until 5:00 p.m.
• Pat’s Place
• Makah Mini Mart – Summer Hours: 7 a.m.-9 p.m. daily.
• Makah Tribal Center, Financial Services – Open Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.
• Hobuck Beach Resort
• The Cape Resort

We had planned on getting our permits from the minimart, however we can across a sign next to an office just before the Mini-mart which sold permits. This office isn’t list on google maps so must be relatively new.

Food near Cape Flattery

When we visited Cape Flattery, we brought our own sandwiches and snacks so that we didn’t need to find food along the way, however there are a few places to eat in Neah Bay if you are not a packed lunch sort of person.

• Warmhouse Restaurant – American Food
• Calvin’s Crabhouse – Seafood
• BIGGINZ Burgers Seafood – delicious fried seafood & burgers
• Linda’s Woodfired Kitchen – pizza
• Pat’s Place – American Food

Coffee shops / Cafes

There are also a couple of great coffee shops in Neah Bay:

• Honey Hollow Coffee Co
• Native Ground Espresso

Where to Stay near Cape Flattery

If you want to spend more than 1 day in Cape Flattery, you should stay in Neah Bay. Otherwise, I recommend staying in either Forks or Port Angeles depending on what else you want to do while visiting Olympic National Park.

Neah Bay (15 minute drive to Cape Flattery)

Camping option: The Village RV
Hotel Option: Apocalypto Motel

Forks (1 hour 20 minute drive to Cape Flattery)

Camping option: Forks 101 RV Park
Hotel Option: Hoh Valley Cabins

Port Angeles (2 hour drive to Cape Flattery)

Camping option: Fairholme Campground (Lake Crescent)
Hotel Option: Olympic Lodge by Ayres

Things to do in and around Cape Flattery

This is a list of things to do in and around the Cape Flattery area to use if you would prefer to plan your own trip and further down in this guide, you will find a 1 day Cape Flattery Itinerary.

Soak up the views along the Cape Flattery Trail

Distance: 1.1 miles / 1.9km | Elevation Gain: 229 ft / 70m | Time: 40 mins -1 hour

The Cape Flattery Trail is the number 1 thing to do in Neah Bay. The trail provides epic coastal views from a number of different viewpoints where you can see some amazing rock formations and the Cape Flattery Lighthouse. You can even see all of the way to Canada across the Juan De Fuca Strait from the last viewpoint at the end of the trial.

Along the way to the Cape Flattery Observation Deck, which is the final viewpoint, you will see views of the ocean from a few different viewing decks. One of them looks over a hole in the wall rock which has been formed by years of erosion.

Hike to Shi Shi Beach

Distance: 4 miles / 6.4 km | Elevation Gain: 200 ft / 61m | Time: 2 hours

Shi Shi (pronounced Shy Shy), is a beautiful beach with large rock formations in the ocean close to shore that make great photo opps. To get to the beach you have to hike to along a forest trail which is quite often muddy so I recommend wearing some waterproof shoes.

You can also backpack to Shy Shy Beach and camp overnight. To do this, you will need to obtain a Wilderness Camping Permit from Recreation.gov.

We had planned to visit Shi Shi, however the parking lot was full when we were there so unfortunately we missed out. If you want to hike to Shi Shi Beach, I recommend getting to the parking lot first thing in the morning so that you don’t miss out on a spot.

Visit the Makah Museum

At the Makah Museum, you will find 300-500 year old artifacts recovered from the Ozette Archaeological Site including whaling and fishing gear and canoes! The Ozette Archeological Site is a Makah village which was partly buried by a mudslide 300-500 years ago and discovered in 1970. Absolutely WILD! The admission fee for an adult is $10. You can find more information about the museum here.

Go Beach-hopping

Cape Flattery is located on a beautiful coastline and there are plenty of long, beautiful beaches to explore. Some of these include:

• Sooes Beach
• Tsoo-Yess Beach
• Hobuck Beach

1 Day Cape Flattery Itinerary

This Cape Flattery Itinerary is perfect if you have a whole day to see this beautiful coastline. This itinerary is very similar to what we did in a day but with a couple of added activities because we had a pretty late start to our day which made us a little short on time. OOPS!

Morning – Shi Shi Beach

Drive to Neah Bay to purchase your Makah Recreation Permit from one of the locations listed in the permit section of this guide.

The driving times to Neah Bay are:

From Port Angeles: 1 hour 40 minutes
From Forks: 1 hour

Once you have picked up your permit, head straight over to Shi Shi Beach parking lot and trailhead. The reason I have put Shi Shi Beach trail first on this itinerary is because the parking lot is tiny and fills up very quickly. We arrived at the parking lot at about 12:30pm and missed out on hiking to Shi Shi Beach because we couldn’t get a parking spot. I hope you have more luck than we did!

The Shi Shi Beach trail is 4 miles / 6.4 km with an elevation Gain of 200 ft / 61m. It will take you around 2 – 3 hours to complete. You can also hike further once you reach Shi Shi Beach all of the way to the Point of Arches, which is a bunch of rocky sea stacks.

There are pit toilets at Shi Shi Beach that you can use.

The parking lot is fairly large although it does get quick busy. There are places to park on the side of the road if you can’t get a spot in the actual parking lot. There are also toilets located in the parking lot near the trailhead.

We found this trail to be very relaxing and peaceful as you walk along a fairly flat trail through the forest.

There were however, quite a lot of people at each viewpoint. It will probably take you around 1 hour to complete the trail with lots of stops at the 4 viewpoints.

The first viewpoint was our favourite and the last one was really cool because you can see all of the way over to Vancouver Island in Canada!