<< Railroad Bridge in Sequim

06/09/24 - From Hurricane Ridge to Hurricane Hill - First Look

The road to Hurricane Ridge has been open for a while. We've been watching the webcams, and most of the snow has melted, so we decided to drive up and see what has been blooming. Hurricane Hill Road was closed, so we parked in the ridge parking lot. We were pleased to see that the park service has set up some pretty nice bathrooms, the kind used for location shooting with running water and other amenities. There was a sad fence around the ruins of the old lodge, so we didn't linger.

Instead, we headed down the road to Hurricane Hill. There were avalanche lilies and glacier lilies already blooming. Almost all of the snow was gone, and the closed road was full of hikers. We stopped to admire the view at the hairpin turn lookout. It's really the same view as from up at the ridge, but here it feels like one has earned it.

We continued past the Wolf Creek Trail junction and up to the picnic areas. The bathrooms there were closed. Then, up the hill we went to the Hurricane Hill Trailhead parking lot. There were lots of spots. There was also a spectacular view, and, even better, the phlox was starting to bloom. There wasn't a lot of it, but we could pick up the scent. It's a sweet scent and one of the great scents of the high country.

We made it to the saddle point where the Little RIver Trail emerges from the forest and joins the ridge. We were in no shape to continue. The trail gets a lot steeper shortly after. Also, there were clouds coming in. This let us invoke the sour grapes rule and start heading back.


We saw this owl on the road up to the ridge.

The view

An avalanche lily

A better view of the Olympic Mountains

Clouds coming in from the north

Phlox blooming early among the war rocks

More phlox and rocks

Phlox close up

Paintbrush and freiends

Another view

Lupines - no flowers yet

We're not sure of this one, but it's pretty.

Glacier lilies

Mist and gray sky

The view as the clouds rolled in

Keywords: high country, hurricane hill, hurricane ridge