Sunrise Point and Cirque Rim Nature Trail

This afternoon, we drove up to Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park and hiked up to Sunrise Point and along the Cirque Rim Nature Trail, about 1.3 miles/170 ft of elevation gain. We saw deer, marmots, bears, wildflowers and gorgeous views! View from Hurricane Ridge and a zoom of Mt Olympus

deer in the meadow by the parking lot

some of the views along our route

We saw a mama bear and 3 cubs down on the road below the trail on Sunrise Point, some zoom photos

We also saw 2 marmots, one along the trail, the other behind the gift shop trailer in the parking area

a few of the wildflowes in bloom

Sunrise Point

After hiking the Switchback Trail to Klahhane Ridge this morning, I continued up to the main parking area at Hurricane Ridge to hike through the meadow and up to Sunrise Point making a 1 mile loop with 190 ft of elevation gain. View from the parking area.

Last week, the meadow had lots of snow, this week the snow was gone from most of the trail. I only saw a few glacier lilies in the meadow, but more flowers on the other portion of the trail. Deer in the meadow.

I started on the Meadow Nature Trail through the middle of the meadow, then went east on the Cirque Nature Trail up to Sunrise Point.

view looking northwest towards Hurricane Hill

view to the south

zoom towards the visitor center and a distant Mount Olympus to the southwest

View to the northeast, Mount Angeles and Klahhane Ridge, where I hiked earlier today.

view to the west

I continued down from Sunrise Hill on the High Ridge Nature Trail, another look towards Mount Angeles and Klahhane Ridge to the west

pano coming down the High Ridge Nature Trail, gorgeous views on a beautiful day!

some of the wildflowers seen along these trail today:

 

 

  

 

  

 

 

Hurricane Hill and Sunrise Point

We drove up to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park to do two short hikes: Hurricane Hill (3+ miles rt with 700' gain) and Sunrise Point and the Meadows at Hurricane Ridge (1.4 mile loop with 200' gain).

Heading up to Hurricane Hill, there were more wildflowers in bloom from one week ago, and all the snow on the trail had melted. Lupine along the trail, with views of the Bailey Range.

   

View of our first destination: Hurricane Hill, glacier lilies in the foreground.

View to the west of Mount Angeles and Klahhane Ridge

Larkspur and views

paintbrush and views 

onions and views

pano from part way up  Hurricane Hill looking southwest

daisies near the top of Hurricane Hill

Pano from the top of Hurricane Hill on the left to Mount Angels on the Right

Pano from the top of Hurricane Hill looking south

Lots of prairie smoke and cinquefoil in the meadow on Hurricane Hill

pano looking south from a little more eastward on Hurricane Hill

Deer next to the trail as we start down from Hurricane Hill

We hiked a short ways along the connector trail down to the Elwah Valley and saw this larger buck.

Views as we continued down from Hurricane Hill, we saw a marmot sprawled out on a boulder below us.

zoom of the marmot

some of the wildflowers seen along the Hurricane Hill trail this morning:

  

 

  

 

 

We then drove to the Visitor Center at Hurricane Ridge and made a loop hike, by walking along the parking area to Sunrise Point and returning along through the northern meadow trails.

View to the southwest from the parking area at Hurricane Ridge.

Heading up to Sunrise Point, view to the northwest of Hurricane Hill

pano to the south: Mount Angeles and many Olympic Peaks

view to the southwest

view of Mount Angels to the east

views to the south

Coming back down from Sunrise Point

Pano from the meadow looking north from Hurricane Hill to Mt Angeles and Sunrise Point

We saw some deer in the meadow at Hurricane Ridge on our way back to the car

some of the wildflowers seen on these trails