Back-Country Camping in the Pacific Northwest

I don't know much about camping at ONP, but I do have another suggestion if you decide to go elsewhere: I just did a day hike at the http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/foss-lakes this past Sunday, about a 1.5-hour drive from Seattle. It was breathtaking! Waterfalls, rivers, alpine lakes (warm enough to jump in!), wildflowers, we saw it all! No hot springs though. It's 7.5 miles to get to Big Heart Lake, but Trout Lake, Malachite Lake, Little Heart Lake and Copper Lake are all encountered on the way if you don't want to hike out that far, and they are all beautiful. If you're camping for a few nights, you can do short day hikes to Big Heart Lake and others without having to carry your gear. As far as I know, these are first-come, first-serve spots; I don't know about the permit situation, because we didn't camp overnight, but I imagine it's not a difficult process to get one. It's good to keep in mind that the farther out you go, the more secluded it shall be. It was not crowded by any means when I went, and it was a sunny weekend in August. The description in the link above is a bit outdated, as I found every foot of the trail to be in great condition. Hope you have a great trip, wherever you go!

The Find A Campground map on (crowdsourced) http://www.muddycamper.com/ seems to be pretty useful, and does include first-come first-served campgrounds. They are established campgrounds, though, and it does look like there are a lot more Oregon campgrounds listed than Washington sites, though, so YMMV.

Hike up the Dosewallips -- the road has been washed out since 2002 and there are no crowds up there. If you don't feel like going too far in you can stay at Elkhead (formerly a drive-in campground with way too many spots) with great day hikes to Lake Constance (if you can get a reservation there, do it!) and the Dose Forks, or you could go all the way up to Diamond Meadows on the Quinault. Amazing hiking there, especially in late summer (bring your bug spray!). If you're set on hot springs, the Olympic Hot Springs road is closed for restoration and you can get up to the springs and campgrounds there through Appleton Pass & http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/boulder-creek-trail.htm (via Aurora Ridge, which would be quite a long hike, or through Sol Duc). No reservations are necessary there either. All the hot springs are up in that part of the park and it's generally a more crowded area. You probably already have this, but http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/wilderness-permits.htm (red campsites have quotas, brown campsites are the day-of/day-before no quota sites you mentioned).

My hiking/back-country experience is a little farther south than you want to go, but this may be handy... A list of all of the hot springs in Oregon is at http://soakoregon.com/oregon-hot-springs-map/.

How about http://www.protrails.com/trail/537/olympic-national-park-cape-alava-trail? It's the http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/upload/WildernessMap.pdf [PDF], all you need is a http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/wilderness-permits.htm... and tons of bear canisters. I went there a couple of Labor Day weekends ago and it was surprisingly sparsely populated, perhaps because it's a bit chilly up there at that time of year? You'll want to dress in layers and bring rain gear, for sure. The day hike possibilities are limitless, especially at http://jaysjourneys.com/2012/02/04/ozette-loop-2/, when you can walk out toward Ozette Island and check out all the crazy colored starfish and otherwise-hidden marine life. The scenery is totally wild and unique. No hot springs or lakes, but you do get to wake up and fall asleep to the thrum of the Pacific Ocean every day, which is quite a treat. http://www.lindsayfincher.com/olympic-national-park-hiking-the-ozette-loop-cape-alava.html!

A couple of resources you may find useful as you plan your hike: http://www.wta.org/ and http://www.portlandhikersfieldguide.org/ (which also covers western Washington). Both sites have "find a hike" resources with trail guides and also forums where people post trip reports so you can get an idea of current conditions.

Along the lines of Shi Shi, the beach campgrounds west of Ozette Lake in the Olympics are great.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I spent some time considering each one and ended up going to Staircase and camping at Spike Camp on the North Fork Skokomish River trail. Hope to go back to the park someday, as there's so much to explore.