By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – Olympic National Park announced Monday it is soliciting proposals to award a new 12 year concession contract to provide lodging, food and beverage, retail, campground, firewood, and other related services at Lake Crescent Lodge, Log Cabin Resort, Fairholme Store, and Hurricane Ridge within Olympic National Park.
The existing contract with Aramark concludes on January 31, 2026.
In support of that effort, the National Park Service will hold a 1-day site visit this Wednesday for organizations interested in bidding on this opportunity, appearing to give the public just two days’ notice. Worse, the deadline for registering for Wednesday’s on-site visit was today (Monday), the same day the notice went out.
The news release says the site visit provides interested persons, corporations, or other entities with an overview of the concession operations along with a tour of the Concession Facilities. It also says attendance at the site visit is not required to submit a proposal for the prospectus; however, attendance is encouraged.
We reached out to Park officials asking why they put out their news release with such short notice, and they responded with the following statement: “All are welcome to visit any open concession operation on their own. The National Park Service is required to notify the public of any solicitation via Sam.gov. The site visit notification was also posted to the National Park Service Commercial Services webpage.”
Park officials said the original posting on Sam.gov went up on August 27.
The prospectus, which describes this business opportunity and includes the terms and conditions under which the National Park Service will award the concession contract, is available at:
Prospectus Releases – Concessions (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
The deadline for submitting a proposal is December 19.
(NPS photo: Log Cabin Resort)