Hurricane Ridge

We stayed at a B&B in Port Angeles to have easy access to the park for a couple of days. We arrived in the afternoon and after getting settled in, decided to drive up into the park. It was a cloudy day in spring and as we drove up the mountain away from town it started to get…foggy. After a bit, it became so dense, we couldn’t see much in front of the car. My mom started panicking – she wanted us to stop, turn around, something! It was mountainous, and the road was nowhere to be seen (and let me tell you she’s had some hair-raising experiences on roads in the mountains of Mexico). So my dad’s chuckling as usual and I’m in the back, “Let’s go, let’s go!”.

All of a sudden BAM! The fog disappears like a curtain and there’s the road, the trees and mountains…everywhere. There’s not another car or person to be seen. And we just stopped with our mouths hanging open – it was like we were in this huge cloud and we came out the other side. We pulled the car over as far to the edge of the road as we could and got out to look around, because it was just breathtaking. Mind you, we hadn’t reached the top yet, when up the road a ways we realize that it’s foggy looking again…I don’t remember who it was who said “Oh s&*@t! That’s another cloud!” It was rushing right at us like a giant truck barrelling down the road. We all dove for the car like a bunch of idiots, but we didn’t turn around. We realized it was just too amazing what we were experiencing to not go further. So we kept going up the mountain through the cloud, and came out again at the top. It was clear and cold when we reached the peak. My mom and dad had overdone it for the day and sat looking at the view from the car – which wasn’t too shabby I must say, but Em and I jumped out and went running up over the field and down the ridge. There were still huge snow banks blocking the trails in places and the sun was sinking on the opposite side of the ridge. But it was so amazing up there – there were tiny alpine wildflowers blooming and lichens and everything seemed to want to lay close to the ground to get away from the cold wind.

We finally dragged ourselves back to the car when it became too unbearably cold. The setting of the sun must have taken the clouds with it because we got back down the mountain with no hindrance…

Beautiful meadows and awesome views in the summer, great fun in the snow in the winter

Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Forest is a bit of a trek from the city for a day trip, but is it ever worth it if you are into the snow thing. It is absolutely beautiful! We kept remarking that the scenery looked fake, it is so picturesque. The sun was out and glittering on the snow and I think the snow-blindness was so disorientating I briefly considered dropping my city girl persona and investing all the money previously spent on vintage clothes into polypropelene.