09/13/08 - Autumn Comes To Obstruction Point

Hiking Obstruction Point always does feel like something out of science fiction. Mount Olympus looms grandly across the valley. With the clear air, it is hard to believe that it is perhaps 20 miles away. It feels almost like walking through a diorama, except here everything is real. The rocks and plants, the distant cloud of Mount Baker, the alpine lakes and their patterns of surrounding vegetation, they are all fantastic, but very real.

08/19/08 - Obstruction Point In Season

Most of the snow has melted, though there were a few big patches here and there. The little lakes in the valley were full and surrounded by lush green vegetation. We could tell this was a moist year. All of the plants were big and green, and there were lots of lupines and still a bit of phlox.

Our special treat was a marmot, scampering across the trail near the staircase that leads down from the point to the traverse. We couldn't get a good picture, only a shot of its tail as it vanished into the shattered field of rocks.

This part of the park is only open for a few months of the year, from July through October, so we try to make the most of it. Despite the road work, our drive up on a Saturday was pretty smooth. A lot of Hurricane Ridge Road has already been repaved, and the one lane sections expanded back to two. That's real progress. If you are ever in the area around this time of year, head up to Hurricane Ridge, then take a sharp turn and head out to Obstruction Point and really explore the Olympic Mountains.

07/15/08 - Klahane Ridge

We start the hike from Hurricane Ridge Road a mile or two before the lodge at Hurricane Ridge. A part of the road collapsed near the trailhead, so there is a bit of construction and a bit less parking there. The little stream near the road is now hidden behind a mound of road material, but it is still there, as is the umbrella tree forest and the meadows and gardens above.

This year there was more moisture, so the flowers are spectacular with great spikes of lupine, arrays of turk's cap lilies, gauntlets of cow parsnips, fields of indian paintbrush and great swathes of richly scented phlox. Summer has come to the high country. The snow has vanished, and the hanging gardens are in bloom. We can tell already that this is going to be a great year for the mountain flowers.

06/28/08 - Hurricane Hill Road Is Open

Being lazy sorts, we decided to walk, rather than drive, so we set out from the lodge along the road. The snow is melting fast. The views are spectacular, as usual. The big show is the flowers. We have never seen so many and so many all at once. Already, there are lupines, phlox, glacier and avalanche lilies, indian paintbrush, yarrow, and a good many we don't know the names of. There were even mushrooms, which are not all that common a mile up. Clearly, the wet winter, with nearly twelve feet of snow, had something to do with this.

As it turned out, Friday was the first day the road was open. The Hurricane Hill trail is generally clear, though there was a big pile of snow near the start, and the rangers reported a fair bit of snow in that shady patch about a mile along. Next time, we aren't going to be so lazy. We are going to drive out to the trailhead and get to the top of Hurricane Hill. Wish us luck.

01/22/08 - Hurricane Ridge Ski Area

01/16/08 - Spectacular Sunset, So So Movie

12/22/07 - Hurricane Ridge is OPEN

The ridge itself was spectacular. We managed to snowshoe a bit, but the snow was all fresh powder, so we couldn't get very far on our trail snowshoes. We were sinking two feet into the snow with every step. On the other hand, we did manage to flail around for an hour enjoying the views and making it some of the way up Sunrise Peak.

The road is still open. Get the winter spirit and check out the high country.

10/27/07 - Hurricane Ridge Panoramas

This week, the high country opened again. The snow had melted from the hills, and the ice had melted from the road. The twisty little road to Hurricane Hill was closed, and Obstruction Point Road was closed for the season, so we decided to climb up to Sunrise Point and then see where the trails took us. The day was spectacular, with the sky blue and the snow on the mountains white. Even a tame trail in the Olympic high country offers a lot of great stuff to look at.

To share the experience, we took a few panorama photos. If you click on the little preview you should get a larger version that you can pan across in your web browser. It isn't the same as the real thing, but it might give you a sense of the view from Hurricane Ridge.

Along the ridge - click on the picture for a bigger version that you can pan horizontally.

A good view of Mount Angeles, and everything else - click on the picture for a bigger version that you can pan horizontally

10/27/07 - First Snowman of the Season

10/09/07 - First Signs of WInter, Last Signs of Summer

This has been an odd year. We missed the usual late summer drying. By September, most of the alpine flowers are past their bloom and rather sere. This year, the lupines were blossoming into autumn, and the hillsides covered with flowers.

The lupines are gone, but even in October, there are a few blossoms - yarrow, Indian paintbrush, and even a few of those violet harebells. There was a bit of ice on the trail, and some slushy segments. The ice freezes under the soil. When you step on it, the soil compacts and the water flows making the ground slippery. Slime ice, we called it, but it dries out in an hour or two and turns into good old fashioned mud.

09/20/07 - Hurricane Ridge Sunset

07/26/07 - Driving Time and Distance Map of the North Olympic Peninsula

To help the many visitors to the park and surrounding areas, we offer this Kaleberg Driving Time and Distance Map of the North Olympic Peninsula. It is based on the distances as computed by Google Maps, but we have used our own estimated driving times rather than the Google estimates. Google has some peculiar ideas on how fast one can drive on various park roads, and they still have the Hurricane Hill Trail from Whiskey Bend to Hurricane Hill as an automobile road! We're sure that was a trail, even before Google was founded. We've also taken some liberties in defining certain intermediate locations which do not appear on any map. In general, things like Elwha Turnoff and Hoh River Crossing are not marked as such on any other map you might find, but are useful junction points linking roads and turnoffs, just what you want for planning your drive.

07/15/07 - Rainbow On The Ridge

For some more interesting webcam images, check out our webcam movie page.

07/15/07 - Silver Light at Lake Crescent

06/17 - Hurricane Hill Trail Open For The Season

The road past the lodge at Hurricane Ridge is open, and the the Hurricane Hill trail from the end of the road is almost completely snow free. There are a few patches in that wooded section, but the snow is melting fast. The flowers are blooming, and the scenery is spectacular. The high country is opening for the season.

We drove up to Hurricane Ridge on a gray, unprepossessing day. There was a foggy stretch from above Heart of the Hills to a fair ways past the tunnel, but then we were above the fog and the mountains views were clear. As an extra bonus, in addition to the mountains, the flowers and the trail, there were marmots.

We saw three Olympic golden marmots, unique to the region, and they were doing quite well, thank you. They were trundling around, digging burrows and checking out the tourists. One of them was rummaging about just to the side of the trail and seemed quite unperturbed by his or her audience. It is definitely time to head for the hills.

06/03/07 - Lake Angeles Trail Report

We finally got around to checking out the Lake Angeles Trail. This is an often overlooked trail that runs from near the Hurricane Ridge Road entry station at about 1900' to Lake Angeles at about 4300'. It is a wonderful climb, and it is usually passable well before the high country is open. This year, we'd like to report that the trail is open to the lake, and, according to an informant who was returning from the lake, all of the snow around the lake has melted. We ourselves didn't get much above 3000'. We need to get back into shape, but it's nice to know that the lake is waiting for us.

As for the trails around Hurricane Ridge. As of a few days ago, there was a lot of melt, but also a lot of snow. The road to the Hurricane Hill trailhead is still unplowed, but at the rate things are melting, the high country should be opening up through the month of June.

05/03/07 - Still Snowshoeing at Hurricane Ridge

Did we mention that there is still snow on Hurricane Ridge? We were out snowshoeing. The snow is getting a bit crunchy, and the trail is pretty messy, since most people, less clumsy that we, are just wearing hiking shoes on the trail.

The road is still only open on weekends (call 360 565 3131), but the drive is worth it. It is still mighty pretty up there.

03/18/07 - Hurricane Hill Is Still Winter

We were up snowshoeing today at Hurricane Ridge. While it is starting to look like spring down here near sea level, up on Hurricane Hill Road it still looks like winter. It was well above freezing, but there were still about eight feet of snow. There is a bit of the road starting to peep through here at the hairpin turn, but we will not be holding our breath waiting for the glacier lilies.

10/26/06 - Rosy Fingered Dawn

We weren't up at Hurricane Ridge this morning, but thanks to the National Park Service webcam we got a look at the dawn's early light. Not only is Mount Olympus and its friends covered with snow, but the early morning glow has given it a glorious pink coloring. We have to start getting up earlier.