The Olympic Mountains are clearly visible looking west across Puget Sound from downtown Seattle. The rugged peaks retain their snow through mid-summer and most of the high elevation trails are inaccessible until late in the camping season.
ScenicBoys: Hurricane Ridge from scenicboys on Vimeo.
Garet and I, along with three very eager friends (Will, Juan and Keith) hopped on a weekend ferry for an up-close look at this impressive mountain range. We camped outside of Port Angeles Friday night and briefly stopped off at the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center Saturday morning. An 8-mile drive out to Obstruction Point brought us to the trailhead.
The first leg of our hike traversed Grand Ridge at 6100 feet. The unhindered view from up there seemed like the backdoor to Heaven. It was a pleasant stroll with a modest incline across Grand Ridge.
The vegetation consisted of sparse Juniper trees and alpine shrubs. Icy blue patches of snow appeared to be a combination of seasonal snow pack mixed with freshly exposed, shrinking glaciers.
Just over the crest of the ridge, before our decent into Grand Valley, we spotted Grand Lake - an awesome view of that beautiful mountain lake. As we dropped in elevation, the lake drew closer and the flowers grew more abundant.
Deer foraged between the forest patches and open wildflower meadows. They acquainted themselves with our group and grew accustomed to our visit.
The lake was perfectly clear; we had no trouble seeing clear to the bottom a few hundred feet from shore. Trout splashed, insects swarmed, and boys explored the afternoon away.
Sunday morning we gobbled down some breakfast and began our hike back out. This leg was considerably harder than the day before. The trail took us deeper in to the forest, then came the steep climb through the sub-alpine, then across some high mountain meadows and finally another steep climb up a shale deposit to the trailhead.
Slow going and exhausting – luckily those frequent stops offered numerous view points of the surrounding scenery.
It was a gorgeous eight mile loop hike. Plenty of animals, spectacular views, endless wild flowers and a crystal-green Grand Lake all made this trip a success!
We’re already excited to post next week’s video. Another one of Matthew Brown’s cinematic masterpieces – this time from Garet’s favorite place in Washington: Shi Shi Beach! See you back soon.
when I lived on the Island, in Port Angeles. my roof top deck had a great view of the ridge.
it's really a magical place to hike, and explore.
Posted by: kenny | August 21, 2009 at 09:41 AM
Lovely scenery......cute boys....what a wonderful way to camp.
Posted by: Mark | August 21, 2009 at 11:11 AM
The clarity and color saturation of the pictures on the ridge is amazing. I was thinking 'enhancement', but the video is the same way. Simply excellent.
Posted by: Doug | August 25, 2009 at 08:04 PM
Oh, I love this quiet beauty....and that amazingly clear lake water is a wonderful reminder of how special our natural world is, when uncorrupted by people and technology.
Thank you!
Posted by: irisgirl | August 26, 2009 at 07:47 AM
So beautiful--the landscape and the boys. Love the wildflowers.
Posted by: Gary | April 10, 2010 at 06:15 AM