Hurricane Ridge

Olympic Range of Mountains, Olympic National Park

The day dawned bright and sunny, so we decided to head to Hurricane Ridge, which we heard was a highlight at Olympic National Park. The drive up to Hurricane Ridge is a 17 mile ascent up the mountain. My ears popped the entire way, and when we arrived at the top, I could tell that the air was thinner. There was a gorgeous view from the top of many snow covered peaks. I believe you can see Mt Misery and Mt Deception from this vantage point. Those are such interesting names, and I keep wondering how and why they got them.

Visitor Center

We headed into the visitor center where a very nice ranger gave us the low-down on the hikes we could do from up here. There were several very short paved trails (less than one mile) from the parking lot, but we were advised that one of them was still completely covered in ice. We opted to drive about another mile down the road and do the Hurricane Hill hike. This is a 1.6 mile (each way) hike up to the top of a ridge. At the top are great mountain views.

Deer in Parking Lot at Hurricane Ridge

Before we headed down to the Hurricane Hill trail-head, we noticed a deer wandering around the parking lot. It reminded me of the elk who roam around Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone. One of the deer even jumped almost in front of a car when working our way back down the mountain on the way out! Tim decided that this was the closest he had been to a deer. I guess I need to take him back to Prudence Island to hang with some deer. :)

We had some sandwiches to fuel us before the hike, and then we hit the trail. The trail meandered through some woods, and there was some snow across the trail. The ranger told us that the 700 foot elevation change was mostly at the end, but either she was lying or we were greatly affected by the thin air - or we are just totally out of shape. :)

Hurricane Hill Trail

The hike along the ridge was great, and then we huffed and puffed our way straight up to a switchback. We saw a marmot! Unfortunately I was not able to get a picture, but it was really cute. And a little sign said that the marmots are endangered. It was a little brown mammal that came out from a burrow in the ground in an alpine meadow. The wildflowers were beautiful and we saw patches of snow all across the landscape.

In the picture of us at the top at the trail, you can see the trail we hiked up on the right side as a sort of track right in the trees. It was quite steep for much of the trail, but we felt a great sense of accomplishment at the top.

We got back to our rental house in Sequim just in time for a nap, and then headed to the Alderwood Bistro for dinner. My father had read about it online and said that it had great reviews and had wanted to go there for the entire time we were out there, so with my sister and the baby going back to Seattle for the evening, we decided to head out to dinner. The Alderwood Bistro has a great wood fired oven and they do pizzas and entrees over the flames. Plus everything is local and delicious!

For dinner we had local prawns and salad to start with a local IPA and a local stout. Everything was so good! For the entrees we had meatloaf, cedar planked salmon, local dungeness crab and steak. We topped if off with an "upside down cheesecake" that was served in a coffee mug with salted apple cider caramel. It was heavenly! And then my mom got an ice wine which she graciously shared with us.

We had an early dinner, so we returned to the house to enjoy some of the cider we had picked up yesterday at Finn River and Eagle Mount and to take advantage of the hot tub at the rental house. All in all, we had a lovely day and the weather cooperated.  I highly recommend Alderwood Bistro to anyone who happens to find themselves in Sequim. We dined in the outdoor garden, surrounded by rosebushes and ornamental artichokes.

Tomorrow we head back to Seattle. Tim has never been to Seattle, so he is super excited. Anyone have any suggestions for stuff to do? We should have a full 24 hours in Seattle before we leave on the train.