A few days of Seattle city life gave us the urge to head back into the wilderness. One of our mandatory destinations was Olympic National Forest in the most north-western corner of the continental U.S. It's known for its temperate rain forests (which are worth the drive), but Danny and Cindy made sure that we didn't miss Hurricane Ridge on our way through.
To get over to Olympic we took a ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island and hopped right back on the 101. We're becoming quite fond of the 101. It winds you along the northern coast of our fair country through fun rural coastal towns and into the park. We highly recommend this drive.
We headed straight up to Hurricane Ridge for our hike of the day. There are a number of great hikes that leave from the visitor center, but thanks to Aaron’s research, we knew that we wanted to do a hike from Obstruction Point. It's the highest elevation in the park, but it mean driving along a narrow, steep, windy road along the top of the Olympic Range to the trailhead. Add some zero visibility fog and anxious deer and you have yourself a very exciting ride! The hike starts just about at the top of the mountain, which makes it a little bit of a cheater hike. Basically we walked 5 miles along Elk Mountain's ridge with amazing views in every direction and didn’t have to climb to the top of the mountain in the first place. Clouds would roll in and roll out, which led to a continuously changing, beautiful landscape! And as a bonus, there were wildflowers still in bloom. Amazing hike! This was easily Sarah's favorite hike thus far.
To get over to Olympic we took a ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island and hopped right back on the 101. We're becoming quite fond of the 101. It winds you along the northern coast of our fair country through fun rural coastal towns and into the park. We highly recommend this drive.
We headed straight up to Hurricane Ridge for our hike of the day. There are a number of great hikes that leave from the visitor center, but thanks to Aaron’s research, we knew that we wanted to do a hike from Obstruction Point. It's the highest elevation in the park, but it mean driving along a narrow, steep, windy road along the top of the Olympic Range to the trailhead. Add some zero visibility fog and anxious deer and you have yourself a very exciting ride! The hike starts just about at the top of the mountain, which makes it a little bit of a cheater hike. Basically we walked 5 miles along Elk Mountain's ridge with amazing views in every direction and didn’t have to climb to the top of the mountain in the first place. Clouds would roll in and roll out, which led to a continuously changing, beautiful landscape! And as a bonus, there were wildflowers still in bloom. Amazing hike! This was easily Sarah's favorite hike thus far.
We headed toward Badger Valley
The fog hides the sheer cliff to the left
The view of the mountains. R.I.P. Grey Hat
Fog rolls in
Fog rolls out
I told Dad that I want to do this hike.
ReplyDeleteNow Aaron, you are writing in southern California dialect. It's 101, not THE 101. I still hold to the correct pronunciation of almonds too.
Love these blogs!!!
Thanks for commenting, but I hate to break it to you, but Sarah wrote this one.
DeleteLooks amazing. Miss you! Anno
ReplyDelete