Hurricane Hill Winter Hike Olympic National Park

 Fabulous day to be in the mountains. We drove out to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park to enjoy the views. While the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Port Angeles were covered in fog all day, it was beautiful at higher elevations. The was not much snow at Hurricane Ridge, but what was there was icy.

Looking across the valley to the north, Hurricane Hill is bare on the south side. This is a longer hike in the winter, because Hurricane Hill Road is closed. The hike is about 6 mile round trip with an overall elevation gain of 1000 ft. We used micro spikes the whole trip, as the road and trail were covered with icy snow. The road drops about 300 ft as it winds it way away from the visitor center.

 Most of the elevation gain comes at the final approach to Hurricane Hill.

The top of Hurricane Hill is a great place to eat lunch and enjoy the views.

Panoramic view from the top of Hurricane Hill, looking south. 

To the north is Vancouver Island in Canada, across the cloud covered Strait of Juan de Fuca.

After lunch, we hiked around the top of Hurricane Hill, here is looking back toward the west toward the summit of Hurricane Hill.

 To the east, Mt Angeles. If you look closely to the right of the picture, the snow cornice looks like an eagle's head.

We enjoyed the scenery as we walked around, it seemed like we were on top of the world. Looking toward the Olympic Mountains to the west.

As we started our descent, you can see where the trail heads back towards Hurricane Ridge, the trail goes to the right around the first tree covered hill, then follows, the ridge line toward the left.

We saw a couple of deer as we hiked back.

Panorama Point & Beyond Snowshoe hike on Mt Rainier

 Beautiful winter day, once you got above the cloud inversion over Puget Sound. We arrived at Paradise on Mt Rainier to mostly sunny skies, though Mt Rainier was initially covered in clouds. We snowshoed from Paradise up to Glacier Vista.

 The views improved while we climbed up. Here looking back towards the Tatoosh Range.

 Looking up toward Panorama Point, our destination for lunch.

 It's a steep climb up to Panorama Point, and a bit icy. We decided to take off our snowshoes and switch to micro cleats.
















After lunch, we followed the trail up towards McClure Rocks. We got to about 7200 ft elevation.

I took this Panorama shot with my iPhone. In the far distance (lf to rt) Mt Adams, Mt Hood, Mt St Helens and up close Mt Rainier.

 Zoom shots of Mt Adams,

 Mt Hood,

 and Mt St Helens.

 We enjoyed the hike and the gorgeous day!

 When we reached the steep part above Panorama Point, we glissaded down. And then glissaded down from Panorama Point!

 
 I find it difficult to judge distances in the snow, as the trails don't follow the original trails. We hiked about 5 miles round trip and climbed about 2000 ft.

Lower South Fork Skokomish River Winter Hike Washington

An easy river hike in the southern Olympics off Hwy 101 nears Hoodsport in the Olympic National Forest.  We did get off trail at one spot and then decided to hike a short ways beyond Camp Comfort, so our hike was about 11 miles round trip with an 800 ft elevation gain over all.

 The hike begins with a 300 ft climb over a hill, then drops 300 ft to the Skokomish River. Most of the hike is in the forest near the river, but the river is seldom in view. There are several stream crossings. The larger streams have nice wooden bridges across them, take the time to stop and look as there were a variety of small waterfalls. There are also several small streams to cross on rocks.
We reached Camp Comfort after 4 miles. There were two trails, one said stock trail and the other had a picture saying no horses. I thought that was the "people" trail. But after about 1/2 mile, we realized it was a trail, not on the map that led to another forest road. We did pass by a nice small falls on the way up and back.

 

Back at Camp Comfort we followed the "stock" trail, which came out along the river for a nice view. The trail continues for another 6.3 miles to the Upper South Fork Trailhead, much further than we had time to walk to day. I had read that there was a nice bluff overlook another 3/4 of mile, so we continued along the trail.

The overlook was in a nice sunny spot with a great view. A nice place to stop and eat lunch.

 On the drive back, we saw Mount Rainier in the distance appearing to float in the sky. A beautiful day in mid January.

Mount Ellinor Winter Hike Washington

 Another beautiful sunny day in Washington State with little new snow in the mountains. We headed to the Olympic National Forest to hike Mount Ellinor. We had read good reports from 3 days ago stating there were small patches of ice on the way to the summit. There was little snow on the road and we were able to drive to the upper parking lot. From there, the hike is 1.6 miles up with 2,444 ft elevation gain. The photo to the left is Mount Ellinor as seen from FR 24 in the morning.





The photo below is Copper Mt and Mount Ellinor-Mount Washington as seen across Hoods Canal as we drove home in the afternoon.

Such a clear day, we saw Mt Rainier, Mt Adams & Mt St Helens from the upper parking area. 

The trail starts steeply in the woods. About a mile up the trail, it splits into the winter trail to the right and summer trail to the left. We choose the summer trail as there was less than 1" of snow on the trail. There are several ledges in the woods were you can stop and enjoy the views. Here we are above the tree line looking southeast to Mt Rainier across Hood Canal & Puget Sound.

The trail continues up and crosses an avalanche chute. The trail was steep and icy we used Yaktrax and micro-cleats. Unfortunately, there were hikers who chose not to come down the trail, but down the rocky chute, and sent large rocks hurling down, one fairly close to me.  (Please stick to the trails when hiking). Photo on left, looking up the avalanche chute. Photo on right, looking down the trail after crossing the avalanche chute.

The last bit of trail up to the summit of Mount Ellinor was very steep and very icy. Even with micro-cleats and poles, I became uneasy, my legs were tired. We decided to stop 20 ft short of the summit to eat lunch and enjoy the views, which were splendid. On this side of Mount Ellinor, we looked across the saddle to Mount Washinton and to the Cascade Mountains beyond. We saw Mt Baker, Glacier Peak, the smaller peaks near Stevens & Snoqualmie Passes, Mt Rainier, Mt Adams & Mt St Helens, fabulous!!!

 Panoramic photo with my iPhone.

The hike down was steep and icy. But we would frequently stop to enjoy the sun and the gorgeous views.
Photo to right: coming down Mount Ellinor, sun reflected in Lake Cushman.

Winter Hike to Melakwa Lakes Washington

A beautiful hike on the west side of Snoqualmie Pass in the Snoqualmie National Forest. The trailhead is located 3 miles off of I-90. Normally, this trail is not a good winter hike, as you traverse 4 avalanche fields. However, there was very little snow below 6-7,000 ft elevation today, making the avalanche risk very low. The trail was very icy, so we used YakTrax or Microcleats.We hiked 9 miles round trip with about 2400 ft elevation gain.

This trail crosses Denny Creek many times. Sometimes on nice bridges, other times on narrow logs and others, stepping over the rocks. One mile up the trail, you cross at the Denny Creek waterside (a very popular place in the summer) by stepping on the rocks. Here you enter the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

 The trail begins to climb and you pass Keekwulee Falls (125 ft) a short way up the trail.
























The trail alternates between steep and more gentler climbing sections. About 3 miles into the trail, steep switchbacks take you up to Hemlock Pass (at 4600 ft),on the way up look back at the views to the south, as the trees at the pass block the view.

Hemlock pass takes you to the west side of the ridge line and gently descends 100 ft down to the lakes. About 0.5 miles along the trail dives, the steep trail down to the left goes to Tuscohatchie Lake. Our trail goes slightly to the right.

There are logs across the water flowing out of Lower Melakwa Lake, cross these if you want to continue to Upper Melakwa Lake.

But first take in the views surrounding Lower Melakwa Lake.

The trail to Upper Melakwa Lake, is on the west shore of Lower Melakwa Lake. The two lakes are separated by a small stand of trees.

We found a wonderful sunny spot on the shore of Upper Melakwa Lake. Perfect for enjoying the gorgeous views.

The sun continued to shine, as we hiked back along the trail the way we came. (Here hiking along the shore of Lower Melakwa Lake)

What a wonderful start to a New Year!