October 11, 2015 Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park, Washington

We went up Hurricane ridge today because it was supposed to be sunny. There are lots of good views.

This is a model of this part of the park. It is very rugged, glacial carved valleys.  The you are here sign is Hurricane Ridge Visitors center, elevation 5,242. It is at tree line. The view in the second photo is from the deck looking toward Mt Olympus, in the top right of the model, it is 7,980 feet tall. It has glaciers on it. All of this rises straight up from sea level.

Lillian Valley. There are dense trees as far as you can see, and they are really tall. We took a gravel road along a cliff to  Point Obstruction . It is mostly alpine, which would be beautiful in the summer, fields of wild flowers. There are a number of trails from here. All are straight up or straight down. We started a hike to PJ lake, 0.9 miles. After a half mile and loosing 500 feet, we changed our minds and hiked straight back up.

  

John, in 44 degrees and wind still wearing shorts and chacos. Mt Olympus is right behind him and in this second photo.

 

The mist was rising up the valleys, it looked really cool.

  

The pointy peak is near Obstruction Point. In the center of the second photo is Mt Baker, it is  near the Canadian border. We also saw Vancouver Island in Canada, the Strait of San Juan De Fuco , the San Juan Islands. 

 

Thick trees in deep valleys. This set of 4 are burls on branches and trunks of trees.

Some of the wildlife we saw, a begging bird, these deer were beside the road, the car in front of us stopped to take a photo-so I did too, trees, and the white dots are mountain goats up above us.  We are camped at the Elwha Dam RV Park in Port Angeles, Wa. It is next to the site of the lower Elwha dam, that was removed and made famous in the movie ‘Damnation’. It is the best RV park by a dam site, also a Drama Free Zone, and down the street is the Dam Bar.

Our site at the Elwah Dam RV park. Nice enough park. Clean, nice facilities, nice people. The sites are a little narrow, and not level, see how the bus is jacked up in the front. And they charge you for showers-$1 for 5 minutes.