Yesterday, Obstruction Point Road up at Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park opened. Today was a beautiful summer day, so it's time to do a hike in Grand Valley for the wildflowers. The rangers said there was a large amount of unstable steep snow at the top of Badger Valley, so we opted to skip the loop option and do an in and out hike to Moose Lake via Grand Valley (9 mile round trip for us). This was my first reverse hike (hike downhill first and then climb up coming back). We stopped to take pictures of this large filed of avalanche lilies about 2 miles before the end of the road.
We saw some marmots scampering along the road, who ran into their burrows as the car approached, then found this marmot digging in the parking lot at the trailhead.
The trailhead starts at 6,100 ft elevation and goes along Lilian Ridge, going up and down 100 - 300 ft. in gentle ascents and descents
The views of the northern Olympic mountains were fabulous.
We would cross 5 small snow fields with soft snow, no traction needed.
Most of Lilian Ridge was in bloom with wildflowers.
It was a good thing we choose this shorter hike, because we stopped often to take pictures
and enjoy the views!
At a high point along Lillian Ridge, I took these panoramas:
The trail continues along the ridge, with great views everywhere you look.
After 2 miles, the trail begins to go down into Grand Valley in steep switchbacks. The trail descends 1,500 ft in about 2 miles. Far below we can see Grand Lake.
Part of the switchback trail is in an exposed avalanche chute, but the remainder is in woods and wildflower meadows.
This was a fabulous time to be hiking in Grand Valley.
There were 3 stream crossings. On the way up, we soaked our shirts, hats and bandanas in the cold water to give us some relief from the hot climb back.
Grand Lake:
At 3.8 miles from the trailhead, the trail divides. Left leads to Grand Lake and the trail to Badger Valley. Right leads to Moose Lake, Gladys Lake and Grand Pass.
From this trail junction it is 0.4 miles to the beginning of Moose Lake,
we continued to hike to the other end of the lake,
where we found a place in the shade to eat lunch and enjoy the views. Waterfall coming off the hillside across the lake.
We also cooled off in the lake, before returning back up the trail in the heat of the afternoon.
So happy to reach the ridge line, most of the climbing done, looking to the west
some of the haze had lifted and we could see Mt Baker and Mt Shuksan in the far distance, as well as the San Juan Islands, upper Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Vancouver Island to the north.
To end our fabulous day, we saw this deer resting in the wildflowers at Hurricane Ridge, just off the parking lot.
Some of the many types of wildflowers we saw today on our hike:
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