Olympic National Park

Yesterday we ferried from Victoria to Port Angeles, Washington, the gateway to the Olympic Peninsula. As usual, we first found the park visitor center in Port Angeles to get ourselves oriented to Olympic National Park. Then we hopped into the car and drove 17 miles to the top of a mountain to an area called Hurricane Hill. We found a picnic spot overlooking a sub alpine meadow, ate our turkey sandwiches and laid on the hillside for a nap under the warm sun. Ahh, mountain therapy. We slept for about an hour until a flock of birds showed up and started harassing us.


From our beautiful picnic spot, we headed to the Hurricane Hill trailhead. We did the three mile roundtrip hike to the top of the ridge (elevation 5,757 feet). Oh my, what a place! We were above the clouds the whole way and watched them roll lazily over the mountain peaks, down through the trees, and across the trail in front of us. Not only was it astoundingly beautiful on Hurricane Hill, it was astoundingly silent. It was so quite I could hear my own ears ringing. This was quite a change from the blustery environs of the Grand Teton and Glacier.


From Hurricane Hill, we made our way down the mountain and to Safeway for water, apple cider and fire wood before heading to camp. We decided to camp up on another mountain top at a primitive campground called Deer Park (elevation 6,000 feet). Located a good ten miles up a single lane gravel road, it took quite a while to get there, and although it was well into night, the full moon lit the clouds and mountains for some incredible views. Gideon had fun capturing the splendor on the camera.


Camp was COLD. We had heard rumors of snow, but we bundled up, made a fire and enjoyed our burritos and hot cider in the quiet campground. It took a while to get sufficiently warm in our sleeping bags, but we finally got thoroughly snuggled in for the night. I had shoved down vests and extra blankets into my sleeping bag for extra fill. It definitely helped. Around three in the morning we were wakened by the persistent tapping of frozen rain on the tent. Gideon and I agreed that it would be a problem if we were to be stranded on the mountaintop due to snow and ice. So, we packed up camp and drove to the bottom of the mountain where we slept the remainder of the night in the car in a turn-off on the side of the road.


Our curiosity got the better of us in the morning, and we decided to drive back up the gravel road to see if it had snowed. It had, but not much. The roads were wet but not iced over. But, better safe than sorry, huh?


Now we are off to explore other ecosystems in this diverse park.