Olympic National Park

This is was first full day exploring Olympic NP! Brian, Scott and myself didn’t wake up til 6:30 AM, but we were still out the door by 7:30. We drove the road up to the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center and was able to get up before the construction started. Unfortunately for us, it was another hazy day due to wild fires south of the area. When planning our trip we knew we wanted to do part of the Klahhane Ridge hike, either the switchbacks from the Hurricane Ridge Road or just start from the visitor center. Eventually we decided starting from the visitor center would give us the most for the time we had in this wonderful park. Immediately this hike was gorgeous! Even through the haze we could see the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other! We stopped about 1.25 miles in as the trail dropped 400 feet in front of us just to climb again and we were off the ridge. We decided there was enough other stuff we wanted to do today so we turned around and headed back towards the visitor center. Total for us on the Klahhane trail was 2.5 miles 800 ft elevation. We checked out the Cirque Rim trail which was a lovely nature walk and was also paved to be wheelchair accessible.

On our way down the mountain we did have to wait through the construction and so it was about noon by the time we got down. We grabbed lunch at Frugels Burgers, which had pretty tasty burgers, and ate them in the room as we restocked for the rest of the day. The next stop was to drive 30 min west of Port Angeles to Marymere Falls hike. It was a 1.8 mile round trip with 500ft in elevation. Unfortunately we got stuck behind a wreak which delayed us getting to Marymere, but the falls were a great hike, well worth it. After we got back to the car we decided to go for Madison Falls next since it was on the back towards Port Angeles Madison Falls was a short .2 mile hike.

It was about 4 PM and we headed back to Port Angeles with the idea of see the New Dungeness Light House. This light house is actually a part of Olympic National Park and includes a 6 mile round trip out to it on a jetty. Our goal was just to try to see it from the shore since we didn't have the time to do the hike. Trying to find a look out point to this light house took us through some country side with many many lavender fields. Google took us to a little public boat ramp spot that was about as close as we could get and the light house was still far off out in the water (being it is a 6 mile hike out to it on its jetty). Even though we didn't take the 6 mile walk to the lighthouse it as still very pretty to see and enjoy the salt air. For dinner we found this placed called Bar Hop that served pizza and beer. They made all of their beer in house and that and the pizza was excellent! The end to another great day!

Klahhane Ridge Hike - 2.5 Miles Round Trip; 800 ft elevation gain
Marymere Falls Hike - 1.8 Miles Round Trip; 500 ft elevation gain
Madison Falls Hike - 0.2 Miles Round Trip; 50 ft elevation gain

Safe Travels,
B&E

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