Olympic National Park – Hurricane Hill

Hiked On: September 2, 2007
Weather Conditions: Approximately 55°F-65°F, partly sunny skies
Elevation: 5000-5757′
Distance from Seattle: Just over 100 miles, including a ferry trip
Pictures: Here
National Park Service: Olympic National Park

Diann & I did this hike in the Olympic National Park as part of our Labor Day 2007 roadtrip.

Hurricane Hill is a 1.6 mile hike that starts just beyond the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center.  I never really understood why it was called Hurricane Ridge, but standing up there made me realize it quickly — the wind truly whips over the ridge, and gusts are routinely measured up there in excess of 75mph.

The Hurricane Hill trail goes fairly flat for the first mile or so, through some stands of trees.  On our way back down through these trees, we saw a mother/fawn set of deer which were slowly grazing their way through underbrush, and they didn’t seem to mind our watching and photographing them.  After the first mile, the switchbacks and climb to Hurricane Hill begins in earnest.  From the top of Hurricane Hill, you can see most of the Olympic Mountains (well, the ones that aren’t shrouded in clouds), as well as north to Port Angeles, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Vancouver Island to the north.  We were presented with great weather (clouds around 7000′ that shrouded Mount Olympus from view) and awesome visibility.  Seeing Canada was no problem, and we sat down to eat a lunch from up high.

While climbing the Hill, I made use of Diann’s new digital camera to take a quick video of the surroundings.  Not the greatest quality video (more my fault than the camera’s), but you get the idea.  This is a pan of about a 180-degree view of our surroundings.

View from Hurricane Hill

Total distance hiked: 3.2 miles (around 2 hours), total elevation gain: 700′, total accumulated elevation: unknown (altimeter watch battery still dead… really need to replace that).