Olympic NP, WA

2022 Parks Road Trip Diary: Days 50-54

Olympic National Park is a large place, its mountains and forests covering most of the Olympic peninsula in Washington state. It is home to lots of interesting wildlife that benefits from the unique weather patterns caused by the park’s proximity to the Pacific coastline. Between foggy mountain vistas, a rock scramble that was too hard, and a walk along the beach, we merely sampled the park’s diversity in the three days we spent here.

Day 50: Lake Angeles

In the Heart O’ the Hills area of Olympic NP, where our campground was situated, the most popular attraction was definitely Hurricane Ridge and some of the trails around its visitor center. Besides that, it looked like we would probably find at least one more big day hike we could enjoy in the immediate area.

We decided to allocate the first day to the non-Hurricane-Ridge hike. We considered going for Heather Park via Lake Angeles Trail (11.9 mi, 5000 ft elev gain), and while a loop trail like this definitely would have been nice, we weren’t really feeling up to a 5000-ft hike today. So, we opted for the simpler there-and-back to the lake, Lake Angeles Trail (8.0 mi, 2500 ft elev gain). Our campground had LTE (a rarity!), so if we were done early we could relax with some good ol’ internetz browsing.

It was a pretty okay hike. Much of it was forest that wasn’t worth photographing. The lake at the end was nice though, a good place to sit and eat lunch.

feeling serene, and full of turkey sandwich

It lightly drizzled while we sat there. It was kind of nice to just accept the light rain as it hit your skin and feel like you were part of nature, not fighting against it. Well, except the occasional mosquito; feeling at peace with them will require a transcendence not yet achieved by humanity.

Day 51: After a Hurricane, Comes a… Fog

It was time for Hurricane Hill (3.4 mi, 800 ft elev gain)!

Hurricane Hill

The visitor center near the trailhead seemed like a cool place, and it was pouring rain outside, so we stopped there first to hang out and hopefully wait it out. In Mount Rainier we had seen so many wildflowers whose name we were clueless about, and finally got to learn about a few! Sitka Columbine. Magenta Paintbrush. Yarrow.

reading books about camping and hiking tips until the rain subsides

vista of the Olympic mountain range from the visitor center

With the rain having moved on, we could finally hike Hurricane Hill. It was short and steep, but the views were great! Well… mostly. It wasn’t long before fog rolled in, so there were very few chances to get any good pics.

sandwich time atop Hurricane Ridge, fog approaches

We were hoping to see an Olympic Marmot, a species of marmot unique to this national park, but alas, none were to be found. We did spot a grouse and its grouselings hopping around though!

Mount Angeles et al.

Since the Hurricane Hill hike was short, the plan was to fill the rest of the time with another hike whose trailhead was at the visitor center: Mount Angeles via Klahhane Ridge Trail (5.5 mi, 2000 ft elev gain).

At this point the fog had really rolled in. I think this hike has some amazing views based on a couple glimpses we got, but I can’t be sure. In some ways, the fog ended up being kind of fun.

It became very steep for the last half-mile as we began to ascend Mount Angeles. The ground was loose and at times it was difficult to get enough traction to take the next step. (Fun!)

The final bit of this hike required a pretty intense rock scramble – a class 2 or 3, I’d guess. Judy decided to hang back while I went up to try it.

Part of the reason I attempt things like this is to prove to myself I can do it, but the views at the summit are definitely a motivating factor. That aspect wasn’t working out so well:

I found it too challenging. The rocks were sharp, making them painful to grab. The way up was steep and there wasn’t a well-worn trail to follow. With low visibility and time dragging on, I decided to turn around halfway up the scramble. Silver lining: I was happy to learn directly what my limits were, instead of guessing. (Opting out of Mount Rundle in Banff still nags at me…)

We were hoping that the fog would have cleared or at least improved by the time we went back, but no such luck. It got worse.

but what if there is a bear right on the other side of this

i could be anywhere in this pic, for all you know

Then the fog finally cleared. To our surprise, we were in Hobbiton!

Frodo taught me a thing or two about long distance hiking

Um, back to reality. The fog very much did not clear yet. We finished up the hike and drove back to camp.

I’m sure we would have enjoyed this more without the fog, but there are far worse weather conditions for hiking. I really enjoyed everything we did this day!

Day 52: From Lake to Sea

Tomorrow, we’d have to depart for Vancouver. With only one more day to fill, we wanted to hit one or two highlights from the rest of the park, even if they were a bit of a drive to get to.

My first thought was: could we summit Mount Olympus? It’s the park’s namesake! Sadly, it is a 41.4 mile trail with 8600 ft elevation gain, so something you can only do as an overnight backpacker. I wouldn’t be surprised if you needed climbing gear too.

Instead, we planned to do a short, difficult, and popular hike called Mount Storm King (4.1 mi, 2100 ft elev gain), and spend the rest of the day doing something chill near the pacific coast, since the park houses several preserved beaches there.

Mount Storm King

Mount Storm King’s big draw is its sweeping views of the nearby Crescent Lake. Its steepness is too, I guess – it acts as a filter to keep the trail from getting too crowded, and even has a few parts that are steep enough to need a rope, which is always very exciting.

turquoise Crescent Lake through the trees near the trailhead

Most of the trek was through forest like the kind pictured above. And it was indeed steeeep. When the trees began to clear, the ropes appeared. There were three or four sections like this:

getting some sorely needed upper-body workout

It was really cool how high Storm King’s peak ascends above its surroundings.

full view of Crescent Lake (and why it is called that)

Coming back down the ropes was just as fun and challenging as going up. We hurried down and got in the car to our next destination: the west side of the park. We decided to go to Rialto Beach and take a walk along the Pacific coast.

The Pacific Coast

I didn’t expect AllTrails to have anything for “walk on the beach”, but it actually did: Hole-in-the-Wall from Rialto Beach (3.3 mi, 100 ft elev gain). The hole in the wall is a rock formation that is ostensibly popular enough to get a named “trail”.

But really, this was essentially a walk along the beach for 1.5 miles and back. And there was plenty to see!

there were loads of giant green anemones in the tide pools

browsing the tide pools for other interesting creatures

The scenery and wildlife made the trip out to this side of the park worth it. As we were heading back, seals came out too, and were playing in the waves. It was hard to get a good shot of their little heads bobbing in and out of the water, but was fun to watch.

Day 53: Full on Gas, But Running Low on Luck

Just like our other travel days in Washington state, our trip to Vancouver would pass through the Seattle metropolitan area. The friends we were meeting in Vancouver would be arriving around 9pm, so we had plenty of time to get there. The drive in typical traffic is six hours, and we were looking forward to spending a little time around Seattle for some good food. 😋

I guess mission accomplished, but it’s a good thing we had so much extra time buffer. We used it all up on a few unforseen woes.

First problem: flat tire, number two of the trip. (On a different tire than the first.)

At least it happened only a mile or two down the road from a tire repair shop, which is really fortunate. (Or… is some kind sinister business tactic behind this?) We slapped on the donut and drove over there and got it fixed. This whole fiasco killed a couple hours.

if i look like i know what I'm doing, it's only because i just figured it out

We had barely made progress getting off the Olympic peninsula when we hit some standstill traffic. Noticing that we were stopped just a little ways up from the Hood Canal drawbridge, we realized it was because the bridge was up for ships. We sat in our car for an hour waiting for it to come back down.

Traffic surprises happen, it just sucks when compounded with the tire. If the flat tire hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t have gotten stuck here either.

We finally got our dinner in the Seattle area and continued north. Our luck started to take a turn for the better. The drive was beautiful. The queue at the route 5 border crossing could have been another big time waster, but it ended up being pretty quick.

We reached our destination in Vancouver without a hitch. Looking forward to spending the weekend here with friends 😊. And to sleep in a room with four walls for the first time in over 50 days!

post originally written 9/15, backdated to match reality