Hurricane Hill Snowshoe

We drove up to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park to snowshoe out to Hurricane Hill. 6 miles round trip with about 1,000 ft of overall elevation gain. It was cloudy and snowing as we drove up from Port Angeles, but by the time we reached Hurricane Ridge we were above the clouds. View of the Olympic Mountains on the west side of the Visitor Center on Hurricane Ridge:

Today, the entire route was well packed down. We saw a few people along the way with only boots, with onlysome post holing. The first 1.5 miles is along the closed Hurricane Hill road, which is mostly forested. The trees were covered in icicles,

There are some clearings along the way. Here, to the north, we could see our destination Hurricane Hill along with the ridge line we would traverse to get there.

At another clearing we had a nice view of the Bailey Range to the west.

Further along, we had a nice view of Mt Angeles to the east.

From the end of the Hurricane Hill road, the views open up to the west Mt Angeles.

The way to Hurricane Hill:  skiers follow the summer route traversing a couple of avalanche chutes on the left side of the ridge. Snowshoers are encouraged to go up along the ridge top.

The way continues going around a group of trees, right to the edge of the ridge.

Hurricane Hill in the distance, keeping up on the ridge.

At Hurricane Hill the way is straight up.

View to the south: Mt Olympus, from the side of Hurricane Hill.

Very frozen trees at the top of Hurricane Hill

Looking out over the Strait of Juan de Fuce, the San Juan Islands were covered in clouds as were the northern Cascade mountains.

Mt Angeles to the east.













Pano from the top of Hurricane Hill looking south:

View to the north from Hurricane Hill








Interesting snow and ice formations covering the trees.











After a lunch break, we wandered around up on Hurricane Hill (top to the right) enjoying the views

These appeared to be fox prints.

Lots of bare patches where the wind has blown off the snow.

The views continued to be spectacular as we snowshoed back down Hurricane Hill.
Lots of cornices to be aware of.

lovely ridge line trail, much better defined on the hike back out.

The icicles on the trees sparkled in the sun light.
















a raven watching over the parking lot back at Hurricane Ridge
















View of the Olympics from the east side of the Visitor Center on Hurricane Ridge.