Some pictures from the hike here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbandisturbance/sets/72157627051119205/with/5928846239/ Wow, at the end of this trail you get the most amazing views. I was lucky and the weather was good when we were up there and the 360 degree views on top are breathtaking, you can see for miles. We drove to the Hurricane Ridge visitor center and the views from down there already great. The hike itself is quite short and mainly on a paved path. There were a couple of snowy stretches which were quite slippery, I found my trekking pole quite handy there. But otherwise there are no problems at all. We saw deer, marmots and the usual chipmunks up there. We were on the way further west on the Olympic peninsula and this was a great hike to do while we were on our way. It's short enough to give you enough time to reach your destination afterwards. Don't miss these views when you're in the area.

This morning was far too nice to go to work, with a cloudless sky and nice sunrise. Besides, it's a federal holiday, so no one else would be at work anyway. So I got a little late start, but decided to run up Hurricane Hill. Well, as close to running as I ever get, anyway. I drove up to the Whiskey Bend trailhead, bicycled back down (and up; and down) to the Hurricane Hill trailhead (about 20 minutes), locked up the bicycle, and started out around 9:30. I've never hiked either of these trails, and the Hurricane Hill trail is in great shape. It's a steep climb, of course, at something like 4000' in the first 4 miles, and another 1000' in the last 2 miles, but the trail is smooth, soft dirt and duff, with essentially no erosion and a fairly consistent grade. There are 2 6" diameter trees across the trail early on, but otherwise, the trail is remarkably clear of rocks, trees, and even sticks. Great walking, and not so steep as to be exhausting. You start in a damp forest of douglas fir and red cedar, with the trail slightly overgrown by sword ferns. Then eventually you reach quite a bit of some odd forest of large, sparse douglas firs with a blanket of low moss, roses, liliaceae, and snowberries and an understory of ocean spray. Very open forest, and quite different from the trails from heart o' the hills up to Mt. Angeles, which aren't that far away. Higher up you reach some western hemlocks. At treeline (~4300') there is an abrupt change from 4'+ diameter douglas firs to low snowberry thicket to grass in a hundred feet. The trail switchbacks up the rodent-burrowed grassy slope, then along the ridge. I met a couple headed down (although I'm not sure how far), and another person who was going to turn around before treeline. Above 5000' or so the trail is steeper and more irregular, sometimes on the north side of the ridge, and after the recent rains and clear night last night there was a fair bit of needle ice. The trail gradually gets more and more eroded the closer you get to the trail from the Hurricane Ridge Road. I saw a few hawks and several ravens in this area, and a deer lower down. Had a few snow showers on the way to Hurricane Ridge Road, but nothing to worry about. I hitched a ride to the top end of Wolf Creek trail, and started down that. It, also, seems to get little use. I saw a couple who probably just went down it a mile or 2 and then headed back up. For the most part, the whole route is gentle enough (less than 4000' in 8 miles) that is "walking", in the usual manner, without needing to slow yourself down. I even jogged some of it, which is nearly unheard of for me. A very different experience from the other trail, as it's an old road, has Alaska cedars in the top third and madrones in the bottom third (neither of which I noticed at all on Hurricane Hill trail), and is, of course, wide, with plenty of sky above. For the most part, trees are smaller and denser. There are several wet seepage areas, mostly high, which can be a little soggy to cross. Again, surprisingly few trees down. The only inconvenient one was around 4200' (I think), which was small, but the only spot low enough to easily hop over it happened to be over one of the boggy bits. Towards the bottom end, I was wading through salal (again, I didn't notice salal on the other trail at all, although I may have just been unobservant) a fair bit. Not a big problem, but if it had rained recently it would have been unpleasantly wet. Also, the soil becomes fairly clayey in the bottom thousand feet or so. Pretty hard packed when I was there, but there were some deep hoofprints from other times when it was softer. Lots and lots of mushrooms of many sorts popping up. Heavy frost and wet vegetation in clearings up high. As for animals, I saw a lots of robins up high, a few varied thrushes, a couple hawks, a couple grouse (low on the Wolf Creek trail), one winter wren, one junco and a few flickers. Mammals were just the one deer, some chipmunks and some Douglas squirrels. And a few slugs. No signs of any snowfall yet in the Olympics.

We were planning on hiking the Heather Pass trail, but we changed our minds when we realized that it might be the last day in a while when the weather was so clear and we wanted to soak in the views all day rather than spend six miles in the forest. So up we went to Hurricane Ridge--even though it was the start of the Labor Day weekend and we knew it would be packed with people. It didn't matter. The views were simply spectacular everywhere, and we drove to the parking lot for Hurricane Hill and started out with the crowds. It's only 1.5 miles to the top of the Hill and it is a very easy walk on a paved path. We stayed at the summit only briefly, taking in the great views--including Mt. Baker, Victoria, in addition to the great peaks to the West and South. A large group of tourists soon took over all the space and it was a relief to descend and head towards our favorite part of the hike, two tenths of a mile back down the trail to the junction to the trail to the Elwha. We saw two marmots in the meadow there and then took the trail beyond the meadow and down to the ridge, which goes up and down and then finally down to enormous meadows. We only saw two people along the ridge, and then nobody at all for the rest of our time on this trail. We descended to the "lunch rocks" which are about at 4300 feet and enjoyed looking down at Lake Mills and the magnificent panorama of peaks above it. (I think this spot is about two miles from the junction with the Hurricane Summit trail). The last time I was here, in July of 2009, the meadows here were filled with flowers. But now, most of the flowers are gone and the meadows are a sea of beautiful yellow grasses.

Hurricane Hill Trail. Beautiful Views. Plenty of flowers and wildlife. No snow.

This started off as a hike up Sunrise Ridge to Mount Angeles and Klahhane Ridge. I was hiking with my 3-year-old however and we were cut off by steep snow and mud before getting more than about a mile up the Sunrise Ridge trail. I decided to turn around and hike up to the top of Hurricane Hill for the sunset instead. The parking lot at the start of the trail was pretty full. The trail was in perfect condition. We passed a decent variety of wildlfowers along the way. There was a black bear in the little valley below the ridge of Hurricane Hill just east of the trail. We arrived at the summit ridge within minutes of another party so hiked around the area to give them some space on top. A lot of wildflowers up here. Some seemed to me to be unique to this area. After the other people left we headed up to the summit area. Nice views in 360 degrees from here. The sunset was fantastic. Deer everywhere. No other hikers around except for us at this point. A nice moment. Hiked back down in the dark by headlamp. http://www.flickr.com/jasonracey