We headed up to Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park to hike the Klahhane Ridge Trail from Hurricane Ridge. We went a ways down the Lake Angeles Trail up on Klahhane Ridge, our hike was about 8.5 miles round trip with an overall elevation gain of 2,000 ft. Lots of ups and downs on this route.
There were deer in the meadow right next to the Visitor Center.
We took the trail from the parking area up through the middle of the meadow, before heading over towards Sunrise Point and the Klahhane Trail. Across the meadow is this lovely view of Hurricane Hill, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Vancouver Island.
We saw more deer in this meadow and a couple walking across the trail.
At Sunrise Point, the Klahhane Trail continues along the ridge at Hurricane Ridge, the trail leads to Mt Angeles.
down in the meadow we saw several marmots basking in the morning sun
A little further down the trail. we had more views looking north to Canada across the water.
About a mile down the trail, I came to where I turned around a couple of weeks ago, due to the large snow field on the downward trail. Now, we walked by a couple of small snow patches, descended into the forest and walked by several meadows filled with avalanche Lillies in bloom.
At this junction, there was a side trail to the left, but we choose to continue along the Klahhane Ridge trail, we continued to walk by a wide variety of wildflowers in bloom.
The trail continues to descend along the south flank of Mt Angeles, until the trail connects with the Switchback Trail.
We continued to see many wildflowers in the meadows along the Switchback Trail, and had some views of the Olympic Mountains playing peekaboo with the clouds. (The lower ridge line in the middle of the photo is the route we took from the Visitor Center parking area).
Mt Olympus emerged from the clouds and I used my pocket 35mm camera to zoom in.
(foreground is the area where we hiked earlier today)
When we reached the trail junction on Klahhane Ridge with the Heather Park and Lake Angeles Trail, we were almost completely engulfed in clouds. We had a brief glimpse down the the water at Port Angeles below, before the clouds completely obscured our views to the north).
We hiked about a mile along the Lake Angeles Trail, I was happy to see the large snow field over this section of the trail had almost completely melted from my visit here a couple of weeks ago.
In the next meadow over, there was a field of glacier lilies in bloom.
Some nice patches of phlox in bloom along with other small wildflowers.
As the trail began to descend more significantly, we decided to turn around, as we would have no views of the lake or much else.
Back up on Klahhane Ridge we had some nice views to the south, as the clouds moved around and over the mountains.
We saw some meadows filled with wildflowers up along Klahhane Ridge.
On our hike back down the Switchback Trail and over to our Klahhane Ridge Trail back to Hurricane Ridge, we took more time to enjoy the wildflowers. We would see several colors of paintbrush in bloom.
Lupine lined parts of the trail
back to the meadows filled with avalanche lilies
Although the clouds seemed to hang around Mt Angeles and Klahhane Ridge, we would see some blue skies and brief glimpses of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
We were less than a mile from the start of our trail, and saw several people enjoying this view before I realized they were watching a mother bear with 3 cubs down in the meadow below us. I needed help spotting the bears, so thankful for the other hikers helping me out.
I tried to take a zoom photo with my pocket 35mm (this is a bit blurry). Mother bear and two of the cubs far below us.
This meadow was full of bisort and saxifrage.
This deer found something very tasty right next to the trail and did not want to move.
a young buck hurrying down off of Sunrise Point
Our last section of trail, from Sunrise Point, we took the more direct route back down to the parking area.
some of the many wildflowers we saw in bloom along the trail today, along with some other flora:
At Sunrise Point, the Klahhane Trail continues along the ridge at Hurricane Ridge, the trail leads to Mt Angeles.
About a mile down the trail, I came to where I turned around a couple of weeks ago, due to the large snow field on the downward trail. Now, we walked by a couple of small snow patches, descended into the forest and walked by several meadows filled with avalanche Lillies in bloom.
I tried to take a zoom photo with my pocket 35mm (this is a bit blurry). Mother bear and two of the cubs far below us.
