06/28/08 - Hurricane Hill Road Is Open

Being lazy sorts, we decided to walk, rather than drive, so we set out from the lodge along the road. The snow is melting fast. The views are spectacular, as usual. The big show is the flowers. We have never seen so many and so many all at once. Already, there are lupines, phlox, glacier and avalanche lilies, indian paintbrush, yarrow, and a good many we don't know the names of. There were even mushrooms, which are not all that common a mile up. Clearly, the wet winter, with nearly twelve feet of snow, had something to do with this.

As it turned out, Friday was the first day the road was open. The Hurricane Hill trail is generally clear, though there was a big pile of snow near the start, and the rangers reported a fair bit of snow in that shady patch about a mile along. Next time, we aren't going to be so lazy. We are going to drive out to the trailhead and get to the top of Hurricane Hill. Wish us luck.

06/23/08 - Hurricane Hill Road

10/12/07 - Hurricane Hill In Its Autumn Glory

08/23/07 - Hurricane Hill Flowers

07/26/07 - Driving Time and Distance Map of the North Olympic Peninsula

To help the many visitors to the park and surrounding areas, we offer this Kaleberg Driving Time and Distance Map of the North Olympic Peninsula. It is based on the distances as computed by Google Maps, but we have used our own estimated driving times rather than the Google estimates. Google has some peculiar ideas on how fast one can drive on various park roads, and they still have the Hurricane Hill Trail from Whiskey Bend to Hurricane Hill as an automobile road! We're sure that was a trail, even before Google was founded. We've also taken some liberties in defining certain intermediate locations which do not appear on any map. In general, things like Elwha Turnoff and Hoh River Crossing are not marked as such on any other map you might find, but are useful junction points linking roads and turnoffs, just what you want for planning your drive.

06/17 - Hurricane Hill Trail Open For The Season

The road past the lodge at Hurricane Ridge is open, and the the Hurricane Hill trail from the end of the road is almost completely snow free. There are a few patches in that wooded section, but the snow is melting fast. The flowers are blooming, and the scenery is spectacular. The high country is opening for the season.

We drove up to Hurricane Ridge on a gray, unprepossessing day. There was a foggy stretch from above Heart of the Hills to a fair ways past the tunnel, but then we were above the fog and the mountains views were clear. As an extra bonus, in addition to the mountains, the flowers and the trail, there were marmots.

We saw three Olympic golden marmots, unique to the region, and they were doing quite well, thank you. They were trundling around, digging burrows and checking out the tourists. One of them was rummaging about just to the side of the trail and seemed quite unperturbed by his or her audience. It is definitely time to head for the hills.

06/03/07 - Lake Angeles Trail Report

We finally got around to checking out the Lake Angeles Trail. This is an often overlooked trail that runs from near the Hurricane Ridge Road entry station at about 1900' to Lake Angeles at about 4300'. It is a wonderful climb, and it is usually passable well before the high country is open. This year, we'd like to report that the trail is open to the lake, and, according to an informant who was returning from the lake, all of the snow around the lake has melted. We ourselves didn't get much above 3000'. We need to get back into shape, but it's nice to know that the lake is waiting for us.

As for the trails around Hurricane Ridge. As of a few days ago, there was a lot of melt, but also a lot of snow. The road to the Hurricane Hill trailhead is still unplowed, but at the rate things are melting, the high country should be opening up through the month of June.

04/02/07 - Elwha Trail Report

Whiskey Bend Road is usually open all year round, but it has been closed for a while due to fallen trees and nasty ruts. It isn't much of a road by some standards, but it has a good solid one and a half lanes, and the dirt is pretty firmly packed and the drainage is good. In fact, it is so good that there are lots of neat waterfalls that flow down to and under the road. Just a few days ago, we noticed that the Park Service had taken Whiskey Bend off the list of roads that have been closed, and today we rode out in our trusty Honda and had a spectacular hike along the Elwha Trail.

The road itself, as we noted, is in good shape, and so is the trail. There were a number of recently sawn logs by the side of the trail, including one monster on the climb up after Humes Ranch. We only made it to the first crossing, about an hour or so hike from the parking lot. The little stream in the canyon was running full, despite two large trees which had collapsed across its path into the canyon. Our special surprise was the first trillium of the season, blooming early in the shelter of the canyon.

On our way back to the car, there was a blue grouse sitting in the middle of the trail. We had been hearing the deep booming of the male birds lekking, that is, staking out good sites for their bachelor pads. We sometimes see blue grouse on Hurricane Hill, but rarely on a wooded trail like this one, but today was different. The grouse were definitely about and not one bit shy.We even saw another blue grouse crossing the Whiskey Bend Road on the drive down.

03/18/07 - Hurricane Hill Is Still Winter

We were up snowshoeing today at Hurricane Ridge. While it is starting to look like spring down here near sea level, up on Hurricane Hill Road it still looks like winter. It was well above freezing, but there were still about eight feet of snow. There is a bit of the road starting to peep through here at the hairpin turn, but we will not be holding our breath waiting for the glacier lilies.

08/18/06 - Corn Lilies and Blue Grouses

We were up on Hurricane Hill and spotted those strange looking plants on the left. Not the little yellow flowers on the ground, but the tall spiky plants with little white flowers on the spikes. Apparently, they are corn lilies, if our trail companions are to believed. They are blooming on the side trail that leads down to Whiskey Bend from Hurricane Hill.

07/19/06 - High Country Update

Obstruction Point Road has just opened, so we decided to take the sharp left at the entrance to the Hurricane Ridge parking lot and see if our Honda could fit on the 1.5 lane road into the high country. We were hoping to take one of our favorite hikes, but the weather was not with us. A bit after PJ's Lake we ran into heavy fog, and were just not up to a harrowing drive on hairpin turns on a narrow road with steep drops and limited visibility. Applying the rule of sour grapes, we rationalized that there was still an awful lot of snow on the trail, as there was along the road, and that we would not have had much of a hike anyway.

Instead, we took a walk at Hurricane Hill, a much more accessible trail. We are pleased to report that the wild roses are in bloom, and the lupines are starting to blossom as well. There were still a few glacier lilies and great fields of dirty sock plant. The Hamper was quite full.

There's a warm weekend coming up, so we'll give Obstruction Point another try in a week or two.

06/13/06 - Return to Rialto Beach

We have been missing Second Beach, which is still closed due to a failure of our government to complete a sensible land swap with the Quillayute tribe. So, we decided to go back to Rialto Beach, and it turns out that we have forgotten just how beautiful it is there. We explored up past the first headland and had a little jungle journey, and we took lots of pictures. While we still miss Second Beach, Rialto Beach has a lot to offer, even to us Kalebergs.

UPDATE 06/21 - We've added a panorama of the beach for those who have wondered what the seastacks must look like from a helicopter.

06/11/06 - Spring Comes To The Hurricane Hill Trail

The last time we were on the Hurricane Hill Trail, it looked quite different, but spring has arrived. The snow is melting and the flowers are blooming. The air is redolent of phlox. The trail is passable, but as you can see below, there are a few snow covered patches left.

11/26/05 - Hurricane Ridge Is Open

Last winter, we didn't get up to Hurricane Ridge very much. Either it was snowing, or it had stopped snowing, but the plow was broken, or all the snow had melted. This year, things we hope for better, and the season is already showing some promise. Today, the road was open, there was a nice coating of snow, and everyone seemed to be heading up to the Ridge to work off some Thanksgiving turkey.

We put on our snowshoes and hiked from the Hurricane Ridge lodge to the Hurricane Hill trailhead. We ran into others on snowshoes, cross country skiers, and a number of people just tromping along in boots. The sky was bright blue, with just a hint of cloud, and the air was wonderfully clear. This latter was an especial relief since we had been enduring a bit of fog and bad air of late.

The ski lift wasn't open yet, but there were lots of people with sleds, snowboards and even skis. Of course, they had to climb Sunrise Peak by foot without the lift. As for us, we came for the exercise.

11/06/05 - Winter Calling: A Report En Route to Lake Angeles

It seems like only yesterday that we were wandering the high country of Olympic National Park, but the snows have been coming in and Hurricane Ridge Road has been closed early. Rumor has it that the park will be plowing, but for now we've retreated from Hurricane Hill and the Switchback Trail to one of our winter standbys, the Lake Angeles Trail which starts at 1870' above sea level, right near the entrance to the park.

There was no snow in the parking lot, but about 600' apl (that's above parking lot) we started seeing a thin crusting along the trail. The traction was great, so we kept on going. The wooden bridge over the stream was covered with perhaps a quarter inch of snow, but even we managed to cross it. It wasn't until about 1200' apl that the trail started to seem snowy. From here on up we could definitely feel that we were walking on snow, and as we ascended, the snow got deeper. We turned around about 1600' apl, and as you can see in the picture, there was an inch or two of snow.

We didn't go any farther, but there were a good number of people heading up and down the trail. They were all wearing boots, and most of them had made it all the way up to the lake. The snow there, around 2350' apl is over a foot deep, maybe a foot and a half. It sounds like rough going, but everyone we met said it had been worth it. Maybe next time.

10/11/05 - Early Frost in the High Country

There is already frost up in the hills. We were up on the Hurricane Hill Trail this morning, and there it was alongside the trail in the shaded areas. The lingering snows vanished months ago, but now we are getting our first glimpse of winter as the temperatures drop at night.

Obstruction Point Road is still open, but they close it at night. The snow poles are up around the Hurricane Ridge Lodge. This is still autumn, but we are seeing signs of winter, and a mile above sea level winter starts a fair bit earlier than down by the sea.

06/16/05 - First Fawns of the Year

05/25/05 - Signs of Spring

02/15/05 - Snowshoe Report From Hurricane Ridge, snowshoeing

08/29/04 - Blue Grouse at Hurricane Hill

08/15/04 - Blue Grouse Chicks

06/27/04 - The Hamper

We always liked those old fashioned nature documentaries with their portentious announcers. We were up at Hurricane Hill today, and the dirty sock plant (Polygonum bistortoides) is in bloom. This plant is noted for its hearty aroma. The scent hasn't really ramped up yet, but as we passed this field (shown at the right), we could almost hear the ominous bass voice, "... a field so full of dirty sock plant, it is known as 'the hamper'".

On a more pleasant olfactory note, the bog orchid (Platanthera leucostachys) is also in bloom near the start of the Switchback Trail to Klahane Ridge. This plant has a sweet, almost honeyish smell. We had noticed this scent on our last hike up the Switchback Trail, but had been unable to find its source. This time our search bore fruit, and good smelling fruit at that.

In any event, we should point out that the alpine wild flower season is nearing its peak of diversity. The yarrow is ready to open, the phlox and glacier lilies are passing. The season started early this year, and the true floral glory of the high meadows is upon us.

We will provide appropriate aromatic HTML as soon as a few more browsers start supporting SE-CSS (scent enabled CSS). We apologize for the inconvenience, or maybe not.

06/03/04 - The Snows Are Melting