Hurricane Ridge

After spending a day at Salt Creek and Cape Flattery, we headed up to Hurricane Ridge, in Olympic National Park. This is a place I visited often as a kid. My grandparents lived in Sequim, Washington, for many years, and I spent a week every summer out here visiting my grandma. I remember camping at Salt Creek and hiking at Hurricane Ridge with her, so I was very excited to go back and see these places again that I haven’t been in many years.

I found some old pictures of myself and my brother hiking with our grandma at Hurricane Ridge when we were kids, so this post is going to be a little different since it’s a place that brings back so many memories for me. Here’s to a look back in time 🙂

Then: my brother and I at Hurricane Ridge in July 1998.

Now: J and I at Hurricane Ridge in September 2014.

I love this view from the rock wall at the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center. We have many photos from each visit of my brother and I sitting here with the Olympics in the background, and it’s a tradition I think I’ll continue!

After spending some time at the Visitor’s Center, we decided to hike from Hurricane Ridge over to Klahhane Ridge. There are two main ways to get there – a nice trail across the ridge from the Visitor’s Center, or the Switchback Trail, which starts further down on the road and switchbacks straight up the side of the mountain. I remember doing that one as a kid — this time we opted for the ridge trail that starts out nice and flat 🙂

Here’s where the Switchback trail meets the ridge trail we’d hiked over from Hurricane Ridge. The trail on the left is where we continued hiking up to Klahhane Ridge. It was so fun to see this trail again and remember hiking the Switchback trail when I was younger!

Then: My brother and I hiking at Hurricane Ridge with our Grandma.

Now: the view toward Hurricane Ridge hiking up Klahhane Ridge.

Then: My brother and I with our Grandma and Bill at the top of Klahhane Ridge in 1998.

And now: J and I from the top of Klahhane Ridge, facing Hurricane Ridge, in 2014.

We also stopped by Hurricane Ridge in February after our hike to Sol Duc Falls. It’s such a beautiful place and holds so many memories, so I think we’ll probably continue to stop for a visit anytime we’re out on the Peninsula.

One of the hardest things to learn when I moved to Seattle was where to throw things away! Almost anywhere you go there are “Recycling”, “Compost”, and “Landfill” bins (with “Landfill” being the smallest, so you feel bad about actually using it). The Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center takes it one step further — they have a “Terracycling” bin for things like potato chip bags, glass is split out separately from the rest of recycling, and there isn’t an actual trash can anywhere. It’s pretty amazing!