Olympic National Park Days 3-4

Previous: Olympic National Park Days 1-2

July 20

Ozette Triangle Trail

We had our typical breakfast at the campsite: instant oatmeal, cold cereal, and coffee.  As usual we just boiled water every time we “cooked” at the campsite.

Our itinerary for this day had us tooling around the Olympic Peninsula, not Olympic National Park. We left around 9:00 a.m. for Neah Bay along Rt. 112, a national scenic byway with awesome views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca (the last stretch before opening up to the Pacific Ocean). This stretch of road is part of the much larger “Whale Trail” with several official stops with views and informational placards.  We saw no whales today but did get some nice views.

We passed though the interesting fishing town of Sekiu.  It’s more a village.  The town has a handful of residents but is also a tourist destination for water activity and nature lovers.  It is very rustic, there is nothing fancy about anything here, but the bay was full of boats of all sizes.  The economic status mix of people was evident in the boats and the varied RV and campers we saw strewn about.  There were also people tent camping alongside RVs just on the rim overlooking the boats in the small inlet.  But there was no hustle and bustle to the place.  Though there were lots of boats and campers we saw little activity.  We drove through the strange town and back, as there is only one way in and out, and saw just a couple of people, and one small cafe.  This is the last town before getting into Indian Reservation.

Rt. 112 along Neah Bay would lead us to our objective for the day: Cape Flattery.  There is a short hiking trail on the Mekah Indian Reservation there that would take us the western most point in the continental U.S. Things were going great until we got to the border of the reservation.  Wicked unfortunately, Neah Bay was closed to visitors due to COVID…bummer!  Only residents of the reservation were allowed beyond the checkpoint.  This was highly disappointing.   But, onto Plan B…which was whatever we could figure out at the time.

We weren’t too far from Ozette Lake in Olympic National Park, about one hour away, so off we went.

As Emilie was driving there, I researched activities for the Ozette area in advance of arriving.  Turns out there is a pretty cool hiking trail there.  It’s the 9-mile Ozette Triangle Trail.  There were options for the triangular loop. Each length of the triangle was 3-miles, so we could do it clockwise or counter-clockwise, and we could just do one leg out and back for 6-miles.  After talking with people in the trailhead parking lot at the ranger station we decided to do the whole 9 miles counter-clockwise.  There were bear-warning signs in the parking lot/visitors center but the people we spoke with said that there were no bear sightings recently, so we left our bear spray in the car.  (You see where this is leading, right?)

This hike turned out to be one of our favorite hikes of the whole road trip.  Six miles of lush, thick forest hiking, and 3-miles of beach hiking.  The forest hiking included an elevated cedar boardwalk for a good chunk of the way.

After the first 3 miles we could both hear and smell the ocean as we approached the captivating and isolated coast of Cape Alava.  We were greeted by large craggy black rocks spiring out of the water beyond the shoreline.  We rested a bit, then headed south down the beach toward Wedding Rocks.

Thanks to some hikers coming the other way giving us the heads up, we were able to find the ancient Mekah tribe petroglyphs etched into Wedding Rocks.  Very cool.

The 3-mile coastline segment was pretty tough at times, hiking in soft deep gravelly sand, but the rocky coastal scenery was amazing. While on the beach segment we saw a black bear in the near distance, seals basking on a rock, an eagle perched on a rock, and a washed-up small whale.

The bear sighting occurred while we were resting at the spot where we found the marker for the entrance to the final 3-mile leg of forest hiking…fortunately there were a few people there as well who validated that for us.  It was these people who pointed out the bear to us.

 

So now, it appears we are going to finish the hike along a trail where we just passed a black bear…and we left our bear spray in the car because people told us there no recent sightings!!  The final 3-mile segment back to the trailhead included a good amount of boardwalk, and so this was refreshingly easier than the 3 miles of sandy beach.

We were very fortunate that we completed the beach stretch while the tide was just coming in.  A check of the tidal charts would have been the smart thing to do before venturing on this hike.  We were lucky because there were a few points on the hike where if the tide came in quicker than it was we’d be kinda screwed.  There were several markers on trees along the shoreline indicating high-tide escape routes if necessary…but they were pretty darn steep…two of them had ropes to help escape upward. The tidal chart for the day probably explains why most people had completed the hike earlier than we did…but then we really weren’t planning on hiking this on this day.

After this great hike we headed out toward La Push, and found dinner at the folksy Breakwater restaurant along Highway 112 in Clallam Bay overlooking the strait of Juan de Fuca.  We got in just before they closed, and they were very kind to allow us to sit just before closing.  While eating we looked for whales through the window at our table. There was nothing fancy here, just really good food, and friendly service to go with a great view, all for a very reasonable price.

We got back to La Push just in time to see the sunset’s afterglow over the water from First Beach and the marina. This view was one of the most magical we experienced on the trip.

After taking this in we drove back to the campsite. At the campground I showered, and then off to bed we went.

July 21

Elwha Valley and Port Angeles

Breakfast at the campsite.

This morning we came to the realization that after the rainfall two night’s prior, nothing is drying. Even though it was a beautiful day yesterday, and dry overnight, anything that got wet remained damp for good due to the moisture in the air…we must be in a temperate rainforest. This was an unforeseen benefit of it raining very little on us while visiting here…much more of our clothes and sleeping bags/blankets could have been permanently dampened if it had rained per usual.

We decided not to do our planned steep hike to Lake Angeles at Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. The tiring 9-mile Ozette Triangle Trail hike the day before influenced that decision.

We opted to check out Port Angeles, about an hour away, and then head to Hurricane Ridge in the late afternoon. Weather reports showed lots of clouds until around 4:00 p.m. so we were in no rush to re-visit Hurricane Ridge for Olympic Mountain range vistas. We visited Hurricane Ridge with the Backroads hiking group the previous week but we wanted to go back because the cloud mass over the mountain range prevented us from seeing the peaks of the range, and we really wanted an unobstructed view of the it.

Part of the drive to Port Angeles took us along beautiful Lake Crescent, where we stayed a few days ago. It’s a beautiful stretch of drive.

On our way toward Port Angeles, we noticed that we could take a minor detour to see Madison Falls, and thereby visit the Elwha section of Olympic National Park. From the parking lot it was a ridiculously easy 1/8 mile stroll to the 100′ falls.  Again, as noted earlier, it seems that all detours in Olympic Park are worth it…this was no exception.  Another gorgeous waterfall.

We considered doing a hiking trail in Elwha but the access road in, past the Madison Falls trailhead was closed to cars due to washed out roads ahead. Hikers were graciously allowed to walk the 8 miles to the trailhead along the paved road, but we chose not to…call us crazy. We did however meet a young couple in their customized conversion camper. They were blogging about their unique camper, and their travels.  Emilie, who has serious camper van envy was ready to abandon me but thankfully there was no room for her, so we just chatted with the couple and went on our way.

Port Angeles is a busy city, a gateway to Olympic National Park, and the economic hub of the Olympic Peninsula.  We walked the waterfront along Port Angeles Harbor and the immediate area, and found some cool sidewalk art.

We climbed a tower at the waterfront and got some nice views of the city, the sea, and Vancouver Island. From here we could see the cloud mass hovering over Hurricane Ridge even though Port Angeles itself was mostly sunny.  The city is squeezed between Hurricane Ridge on one side, and Vancouver Island across the water on the other.

We grabbed lunch at Coyote BBQ downtown Port Angeles.  We sat at the bar and shared a pretty good brisket plate.  The bartender was friendly but nobody else really was.

After lunch we still had a bit of time to kill as the internet was indicating that the clouds would get higher above Hurricane Ridge in the next hour or so.  We drove a couple of miles to Ediz Hook, a spit of land that juts out into the water about two miles, dividing the harbor from the the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  There are some awesome vistas from this place.

Olympic National Park: Hurricane Ridge

From Ediz Hook we drove the 40 minutes to the Hurricane Ridge Visitors Center in Olympic National Park. Fortunately, at this time of day there was no traffic at the entrance station. We showed the ranger our National Parks Pass and headed up Hurricane Ridge Road to the mile-high summit. The access road from the entry point in Port Angeles is 17 miles of steep grade.   It is a winding, and at times nerve wracking road to the visitors center. But it is so worth it. We were driving through drifting cloud and fog on Hurricane Ridge Road and were thinking we may not get any views when we get there. It was only about 3:30 p.m. so we kept going knowing that the forecast predicted clearing soon.

We were pleasantly surprised at the top as we were greeted with spectacular views of the Olympic Mountain Range, peaks and all! The fog would move in and out, dramatically hiding and revealing the range.  Nobody should miss Hurricane Ridge when visiting the Olympic Peninsula!!

After a snack, we took a short nap in our car facing the mountain range.

We then drove the 1.5-mile road beyond the visitor’s center to the Hurricane Hill trailhead. This was the most dangerous section of driving we have done all trip. There was one hairpin turn that really should be illegal, but by then we were committed. This road should not be driven by the faint of heart or the unlucky.

We parked at the endpoint and walked about 1/3 mile up the trail and got more awesome views. Several marmots were scurrying about. We watched a woodpecker feed her squeaking babies in a tree. We only did a short stretch of this trail because it was getting late and the paved hiking trail grew dramatically steeper. The sign said it would take about 1.5 hours to do the 1.5 miles in and up. We were not in our hiking clothes either. Next time…and only if perfectly sunny so we’d be guaranteed additional views.

We headed out of Hurricane Ridge around 6:30 p.m., and got back to La Push around 8:30 p.m.

Near the campsite we decided to go a couple of miles beyond it to hike the .7-mile Second Beach trail to try and catch sunset on that beach. Sunset was at 9:10.

We made it through the dense rainforest, board-walked trail just in time to catch a truly remarkable sunset. Upon reaching the beach from the trail we noticed about 20-30 people dispersed around, and many had cameras on tripods.  We noticed that all tripods were facing a rock formation in the water up the beach that had a hole in it.  Little did we realize that we were about to be treated to the sun setting right through the hole in the rock formation. Wow! What a finale to our stay on the Olympic Peninsula.

Em walked in the water a bit, and then we forced ourselves to start hiking back.

We forgot that the 1-mile hike through the well canopied rainforest back to the car would be AFTER sunset…meaning a hike in the dark.  So, we didn’t doddle.  It definitely got a bit tricky near the end as it got darker and darker…but yes, we made it.  Nobody from the beach was on the trail with us so we assumed they were camping on the beach as it is a popular camping destination.

Back at the campsite, we had cheese, salami, crackers and beer for a very late dinner by the campfire.

Off to bed.

Next: Mount Rainier National Park