Wandering Olympic National Park - The Mountains

In this 5-part series, we explore Olympic National Park. We’ll share our travel log, the hits, the misses, the missed, and the reasons we can’t wait to go back again. PART 3 – The Mountains.

Standing at 7,980-feet, Mount Olympus is the crown of the Olympic Mountain range. Radiating out from the peak are, U-shaped valleys, meadows, lakes, and densely forested areas, some that are under 35 miles away from the Pacific Ocean. We’ve talked about it during the two previous parts of this series, and it bears repeating that the diverse ecosystems of Olympic National Park make it a unique experience and one that should not be missed.

Hurricane Ridge

By far, Hurricane Ridge is the most popular and busiest area of the park. As with most points of interest here, be prepared to drive get there, I’m not complaining about that, quite the opposite, the scenery to and from all of these wonderful locations is beautiful and makes the treks very enjoyable. You access Hurricane Ridge from Hurrican Ridge Road out of Port Angeles. From the city to the end of the road and Hurricane Visitor Center you’ll travel about 19 miles. The Olympic National Park Visitor Center is located just as you leave town and is the perfect place to stop, get acquainted with the area and what to expect on the ridge. Once you leave there and start heading up the mountain, you’ll officially enter the park where you’ll pay the $30 admission fee. As I mentioned, this is a popular place, and although the parking lot at the ridge is very large, it will often fill up early, especially during peak summer hours. During our visit, we headed up around 8 am and by the time we left at 2 pm the parking lot was full. We heard that the prior day, the parking lot was full by 9 am. That is yet another good reason to stop at the Visitor Center at the base to get their recommendations for traveling around the park. Now that those tips are out of the way, let’s chat about how this is a place you do not want to miss!

This two-lane road curves and meanders its way up the foothills offering up beautiful views of the snow-capped peaks and seamlessly neverending mountain ridges. In a short amount of time, you go from sea level up above the tree line into the alpine glory that is Hurricane Ridge. The views are spectacular in all directions. The waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the north ground you to where you came from and as you look around in every other direction the incredible peaks of the Olympic Mountains call you to wander.

The first stop should be the Visitor Center where you can check in with the Rangers and get their recommendations on the trails that will best suit your skill level. There are a wide variety of trails up here that range from wheelchair accessible rim walks to ridge hikes and then much longer and strenuous hikes into the mountains. I’ve borrowed the trail information below from the NPS website, for even more trail info and maps go to www.nps.gov/olym

Hurricane Ridge Map - NPS

Hurricane Ridge Hikes - NPS

It was a beautiful sunny day during our visit, a little on the hot side even, and it became quickly apparent where Hurricane Ridge got its name. Certainly no gale force winds but just enough of a consistent breeze that it made the hiking enjoyable. We were in search of a hike that would give us a good dose of what the area offered up while not taking the entire day. The trusty rangers lead us to the Klahhane Ridge trail. As with most places, there were substantial crowds at the start, but as we veered off of the Sunset Point trail and headed off on our adventure we quickly found ourselves alone on this beautiful trail. I am a huge fan of alpine hiking and this is an easy hike that gives you a great payoff along the way. Although there are no steep drop-offs, there are parts where you on the side of a fairly steeply-sloping hill so it might not be the best option if you are at all afraid of heights. There are too many vistas to even mention and you find yourself stopping a lot to take it all in. We passed meadows full of colorful wildflowers—Indian paintbrush, lupine, & glacier lilies. Mountain goats, marmots, black bears, and deer call the area home, although we didn’t see any sightings that day. We didn’t have any intention of hiking the full 7.2-mile round trip hike so we turned around at about the 2.5-mile mark (ish) and headed back to the Visitor Center. We passed a number of people on our way back so we played it right by getting up there early because we really felt like we had the run of the mountain that day!

If you are looking for an additional driving adventure – and the weather conditions are right – take the 8-mile mostly single-lane Obstruction Point (gravel) road that starts right from the parking lot at Hurricane Ridge. Often called the most frightening road in the state, it’s the highest elevation road in the park, with steep drop-offs and spectacular views!

Prior to our trip we bought several hiking books on the park and found that the vast majority of the hikes are longer day-hikes or backpacking treks. Although that wasn’t what we had on the agenda we had planned on getting out into the wilderness and exploring. This being our first visit we quickly realized that we needed to make the decision on whether to see as much of the park as we could or see less and get out there and get those hikes in. It wasn’t an easy decision to make because those mountains were calling, but we know that we’ll go back and when we do, we’ll fill you in on the trails less wandered!

Here are a few photos from our trek along Klahhane Ridge…