It’s said you should keep the best things for last and although not quite the best, today’s activity was right up there.
It seems we’re having a bad weather day and a good weather day alternately. Today started off really well – we could see the mountains to the south and across the strait to Vancouver Island to the north.
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| Mountains in Olympic NP |
After a small sleep-in we set off for the northern section of Olympic NP and a 27 km uphill drive, involving three tunnels, to Hurricane Ridge. For our early start we were rewarded with a magnificent view of the surrounding mountains although some of the peaks were obscured by low cloud. As with all the other parks we have visited, Olympic is also in the throes of autumn shut-down. The visitor centre and gift shop were closed for the season and the snow poles were coming out.
A major walk to Hurricane Hill starts just past the visitor’s centre and we set off with lots of energy and enthusiasm to walk the 2.5 km (all uphill) to the top. The view along the trail was superb in all directions – snow capped mountains dropped steeply to the valley bottom far below while the colours displayed were very impressive. The dark colours of the pine trees contrasted brilliantly with the autumn shades.
As we approached the top the cloud started to descend lower and we decided to abort the last few hundred metres of the climb. After all, how much fun is there in looking at the inside of a cloud?
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| Looking back towards the trailhead. Cars are in the centre. |
It was a good decision because by the time we had reached the car the cloud had completely closed in and it had become very, very cold.
The long drive back down the mountain allowed tiredness to well and truly set in. Despite this it was a really beautiful hike and well worth doing.
The afternoon was spent giving the car a drive-through car wash while Helen attended to our personal laundry.
Packing our accumulated possessions into the limited baggage space was a challenge – hopefully it will all fit into Tony’s car.
