I’m not really one for superlatives. If you ask me “where’s the best place you’ve ever visited”, “which is your favourite country”, or “where did you have your best ever pizza”… I kind of struggle with that. Top 10 lists I can kind of get away with, (as long as no one’s counting whether there’s really 10 things in the list!). So en route to our recent trip to Olympic National Park, there we were at the checkout making small talk in Wholefoods. During which, said checkout guy proclaimed that Olympic National Park was his “absolute favorite place on the planet”. Bold statement indeed! Not wanting to dull his enthusiasm with a question over how many places on the planet he’d actually visited, we got back in the car, set the satnav for Olympic and dialed up our expectations to “beyond awesome”.
The weather forecast didn’t offer the best start… rain. But whilst it was kind of a bit overcast, it wasn’t actually technically raining. Expectations exceeded right there!
Having fitted in a sneaky trail run at Lena Lake on the periphery of the park along the way, we skirted the Hood Canal for 100 miles or so, in all its drizzly splendor. We were staying near Port Angeles in a static caravan or RV (which definitely wasn’t going anywhere), on a spacious greenfield private campsite, fitted out with a wooden deck overlooking the Pacific. Unfortunately, the ocean views were left to our imagination as a dense blanket of fog rolled in.
Darren on the deck when the sun came out the next morning
One of our best ‘wildlife’ spotting opportunities came whilst we were inside the RV. There was a rather large spider’s web in the corner of the window (notably on the outside of the window). With a suspiciously small spider on it. Until suspiciously small spider was joined by a somewhat larger mother of a spider (but judging on the reception the smaller spider was getting, it was evident there were no blood ties here). Cue a spider fight of immense proportions. Better than a wildlife documentary, this was enfolding right in front of our eyes! It was kind of tempting to root for the little guy, but the odds were not good. A matter of minutes and the little guy was sent packing.
Olympic national park has three distinct areas: 1) the rain forest: instantly cool and damp, it surrounds you with hues of emerald green from the pine carpet underfoot and the huddled ferns all around, to the towering spruce trees draped poetically with moss. I also learned that the Hoh rainforest is home to the second largest slug in the world – the banana slug which grows up to 9 inches long. Shame we missed that one! 2) the beaches: Pacific northwest coastline with rugged sea stacks, rocky shores and tidal pools to explore. And 3) the mountains.
Having experienced some of the beaches and rainforest last time we were in the national park a few years ago, we wanted to experience the Olympic mountains on this trip. The drive to Hurricane Ridge is one of the most scenic drives in the park. As the road climbed steeply from the thick forest, the switchbacks wound through sub-alpine meadows, leading to spectacular mountain vistas. It’s almost a bit annoying that people can get to these views without even leaving their car. However, the 8 mile hike we did to Klahhane Ridge, complete with 2,000+ feet elevation gain, gave us much more time to take in the views. And we could not have been luckier with the weather – not too hot but endless blue skies and sunshine, the contrails from the passing planes leaving criss cross patterns, leaving you wondering where they were headed.
The thing I love about ridge walks is being able to see the panorama on both sides – look to your right to see into the heart of the park, with layer upon layer of mountains reminding you of the sheer size of this peninsula. Look to your left to see the mountains slope down to the ocean, the distant islands just visible across the strait. With scenery like this, I have to say that Hurricane to Klahhane ridge absolutely secured a place in my top 10 hikes in the world!
