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.
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