Storm King Ranger Station

Storm King Ranger Station is a two-story log cabin on Barnes Point, along Lake Crescent’s south shore, about 18 miles west of Port Angeles. It is a seasonal ranger-information and interpretation stop, best as a short visit while you are already at the lake or using the nearby trails. The Mount Storm King trailhead is a separate access point farther along Barnes Point.

A short, flat path leads from the developed parking area to the cabin. The station opens in summer as staffing allows, so the displays and book sales depend on staff being there. Barnes Point also has public restrooms, drinking water and picnic tables; the station itself is not a food stop.

A historic photograph inside recalls the Lady of the Lake and the ferries that carried passengers and goods between East Beach and Fairholme, stopping at resorts along the shore. The boats moved at about eight miles an hour. Ferry service faded after the south-shore road was completed around 1922, replacing the lake crossing as the way to reach these places.

The exhibits also interpret the Beardslee trout, a rainbow-trout subspecies found only in Lake Crescent and named for Admiral Lesley A. Beardslee. One displayed fish weighed 16¾ pounds; the largest catch reported by the park reached 23 pounds. A landslide isolated the lake from Lake Sutherland about 7,000 years ago, and that separation helped the lake’s trout develop into distinctive populations found nowhere else.

From the approach path, frame the full front of the cabin with its porch, two dormers and stone chimney. Including the roofline and log walls makes the station’s historic shape clear in one shot.