Hurricane Ridge is an alpine area at Olympic National Park. It has an elevation of over 5000 feet. There is a windy but paved 17 mile road to the top that is open seasonally and luckily, opened the day before we arrived. You can also hike to the top but, wisely, we took the road and hiked when go close to the summit. There are many trails at the top and we chose to hike Hurricane Hill from the lower parking lot for a 6 mile round trip hike with a peak elevation of 5757 feet. There had been a visitor center at the top but it burned down a couple years ago. According to a local from the area, because it is a 16 mile windy road to the top it took the fire fighters a while to get to the fire and the building was completely in flames by the time they arrived. There are plans to rebuild the visitor center. Hurricane Ridge is one of the most popular places to visit at Olympic Park. We got up early and made it up to the top before the crowds arrived.
The up was beautiful. Everywhere we looked we saw snow covered mountains. We saw lots of deer, marmots and goats.
As we got closer to the top of the ridge, we had 360 degree views of the snow covered Olympic Mountains, Mount Baker and the Cascade Mountains, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Vancouver, British Columbia. The ranger pointed out the various peaks to us. The weather was amazing with a beautiful blue sky and temperatures in the 70’s.
We were really glad we got an early start. When we arrived back at the ranger station and gate near the bottom, cars were lined up for over two miles waiting to get in to the park. They were letting the cars in one by one as people left. I think people were waiting for at least 2-3 hours to drive up the road. The views were amazing but we definitely advise an early start if you plan to drive up the road. Olympic National Park was wonderful with so many diverse features. We were here for over a weekand still were not able to appreciate everything the park has to offer. We hope to return again.
