Hurricane
Ridge is in Olympic National Park and accessed via Port Angeles. The road
starts at the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center and continues up 17 miles, with a
gain in elevation of over 5,000 feet. Also a mecca for serious bicyclists who
want to test themselves against nature. Silly, I know, but I must confess to being
one of those bicyclists a time or two myself thanks to a husband who has done that ride more times than anyone can count!
Up the
road, Heart O’the Hills is the real entrance to the National Park and you
will have to pay a per vehicle fee of $15 or if you have an Olympic National
Park seasonal pass, it’s good for any ONP entrance.
Once
past the entrance, the road twists and turns with amazing views around each
corner. There are several viewpoints where you can take a photo op, and
also three tunnels to go through. When you finally arrive at the top if it’s a
clear day, the view of the Olympic Mountains is simply jaw dropping. The Ridge
is a fantastic winter sport area, with skiing, snowshoeing, sledding and
x-country skiing. The only drawback is road closures due to weather
conditions…they don’t call it Hurricane Ridge for nothing! In summer, the Ridge
is a great place to go for a picnic and a hike on the many trails in the area.
The snow doesn’t leave until about June, but the road usually clears enough to
safely navigate up without chains after April 1st.
We had
a great time motoring up the road, going
through the tunnels and seeing the pretty lights on the dash, and looking up
the mountains through the sunroof. Oh, I almost forgot…Coop turned 27000 miles
on the way up!
It’s
funny, motoring with Coop has opened our eyes again to the wonderful place we
live. It’s like having a new car also gives us new eyes to see things through.
Once
at the top, there really was not much to do but enjoy the view as we were in
between seasons. Skiing is over for the year and there is too much snow to do
anything else. An impressive amount of snow. Really, REALLY a lot of snow!
After
taking many photos of the scenery, Coop, each other, and Coop in the scenery,
we headed back down the road. We had great sunshine so had the sunroof open all
the way, and I was taking some pictures out the sunroof at the mountains to the
side when I noticed it looked like it was snowing. I told Steve it was snowing and how cool is
that? Then we realized it wasn’t snow, it was hail. Now those of you with a
sunroof know the dilemma…do you close the sunroof then open again after the
squall, or do you just go for it and leave it open? Well, we happened to be equipped
with a sunscreen (what I call our screen door) so we closed the screen door and
let it hail.
Coop
is an awesome car. We are constantly finding ourselves amazed by his cornering
ability and the way he handles the road. Now, this sometimes is not a good
thing for the driver because when you have to go the speed limit and Coop
corners so well, it’s just not as exciting as when you are able to race around.
At one point motoring up the Hurricane Ridge Road, Steve turned to me and said
“Coop corners so well, I’m bored driving!” HA. Any other vehicle we had to
brake and slow down for the corners. Ah well.
To get
his fix of exciting driving, Steve headed Coop out to Piedmont Road where we
still had good weather going for us. After navigating that frightening, ahem,
exciting road, we turned east on Hwy 112
to head back home. On the way we realized we had not been to Freshwater Bay in quite some time so down the road we went.
Freshwater Bay is a wonderful little place with a boat launch, a beach and a
picnic area that’s open in summer. I have many vivid memories of picnicking on
the beach, beach combing, kayaking, and so much more. It was one of my grandma's favorite places and you know how some places awaken a sense memory? Well, I can still taste her fried chicken and potato salad. Yum!
Over the years it seems Bachelor Rock has gotten smaller, but maybe my imagination is just larger than life here.
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