Hiking : Hurricane Hill

To get to Hurricane Ridge, you drive from the town of Port Angeles into the mountains and go up and up and up until you've gone 17 miles and are suddenly on top of the world in the middle of the mountains. You can basically drive up there, take a photo, go to the gift shop, and leave, but we wanted to do something slightly more memorable, so we went on a hike! We wanted do it back in April, but we would have needed snowshoes to do it then (and apparently it can stay snowy through July!). Luckily, we didn't have those problems in early September, although it was pretty chilly when we started our hike in the morning! 

The trail basically follows a ridge out to a high point, where you can get an even better view of the mountains than at the visitor center. For that reason, it's only 3 miles roundtrip but 950' in elevation gain - so basically straight up from the parking lot. Our hiking book warned us of crowds of tourists, so we started out as early as we could and didn't see many hikers on the way out. We did have plenty of views, though, and they were incredible! All along one side of the ridge were the huge Olympic mountains (including Mount Olympus itself). On the other side was the town of Port Angeles, the strait of Juan de Fuca, Vancouver Island, and mainland British Columbia. The picture below pretty accurately sums it up - - - 

Not bad, huh? 

Well, we huffed and puffed our way to the top (it wasn't that bad...and I blame the 6,000' elevation for any puffing!) and were rewarded with a panoramic view of everything all at once. We walked close enough to some deer to pet them - and heard the calls of the Olympic marmot! It was a little exciting, since before moving here, I didn't even know what a marmot was.

We had a snack at the top, noticed that the deer family had followed us up, stared at the mountains until we couldn't stare anymore, and headed back down. The throngs of people our book had warned us about were coming the other way - so we were happy we set out earlier! (See the tiny tiny dots of people on the left in the above picture? That's because we're so much higher than them, even though it looks flat!) It was a perfect hike and we were so happy we did it - we got to experience being in the mountains without being super knowledgable backpackers. Someday, we might try that, but for now it was nice to do something more accessible. 

Here's one last photo, a panorama I put together in Photoshop - - - click on it to see it full size! 

Hiking : Timberline Loop Trail

This is one of the hikes we've wanted to do since we got our hiking book - part of the Pacific Crest trail, which goes from Mexico to Canada, and part of the Timberline Trail, which circles Mt. Hood. The part of the trail that we did starts at Timberline lodge and goes under ski lifts (still carrying skiers up to the slopes!) through alpine meadows to a lookout over a 700' canyon. Our book told us to go in August to see the wildflowers and we were skeptical (it's so late in the summer!) but the book was right, as always. There were tons of flowers everywhere!

After about a mile, we came to the Little Zigzag River and its tiny canyon - and a stream crossing! The landscape was constantly changing from meadows to forest to barren rocky hills. We didn't expect any shade on the trail at all, so we were happy to find ourselves walking through trees for some of the hike! We even had views of Mt. Jefferson, the second-tallest mountain in Oregon (second to the one we were on).

There were so many other hikers on this trail! It was probably the most heavily trafficked trail we've ever hiked - and we were a little surprised. We should have known, though, since late summer is the best time of year up here! There were lots of backpackers, solo and in groups, and hikers who looked like they were going all the way around the Timberline Trail (40 miles or so). Maybe someday! Another mile past the Little Zigzag River, we got to the regular ol' Zigzag River...and a slightly deeper canyon.

That tiny river all the way down there is actually pretty big! We sort of felt like we were on the moon, or in the desert, in these rocky slopes. We stopped and had a snack (and so did a bunch of other people) and headed back the way we came. We realized that the trail had seemed so nice and easy on the way out because it had been ever-so-slightly downhill the whole way. The way back was, unsurprisingly, just a bit more difficult. Luckily, we had Timberline lodge waiting for us - and delicious food!

We had drinks and a tasty cheese plate full of some of the best cheeses we've ever had - and they were all locally produced! After we'd regained some energy, we headed back down to the campground and drove home (thunderstorms forced us out a day early). All in all, a wonderful trip up to the Cascades!

Day Trip - Mt. St. Helens

Living in Portland, it's hard to miss Mt. St. Helens. Every time we drive to the Post Office, we see it. Any time we shop at Target or Ikea, we see it. It's like Mt. Hood - it's "out" in nice weather, it looks pretty right before sunset, and it has snow on it well into the summer. Except we'd never visited - so we decided to change that. It's about a two hour drive from Portland, since (unlike Mt. Hood) it's tucked away into National Forest land without any major roads nearby. 

We decided to do two hikes once we got there - the Hummocks Trail and the Boundary Trail. On the drive in, we got a few peeks at the volcano but arrived at the trailhead for the Hummocks loop in the midst of a pretty forest. We were expecting everything to still be barren from the eruption but it's actually really green in some areas! 

We walked through the forest, spotted lots of pretty wildflowers, and then the mountain was suddenly in front of us when we came around a bend! It looks so peaceful, it's hard to imagine the whole top of it blowing off instantly. The area we hiked in was full of "hummocks" - rocky hills created by debris from the landslide. It was a really unique hike, weaving in and out of the trees and the open desert-y landscape.

After our "warm up" hike, we headed farther up the slopes to the visitors center at Johnston Ridge. We'd only passed a few hikers, but there were all kinds of people at the visitors center! Tour buses and lots of people speaking other languages - I had no idea it was such a popular destination, nationally and internationally! We had a snack and set out on our second hike. It followed a high ridge that faces Mt. St. Helens - with perfect views the whole way.

Most of the hike curved around hills and the top of the ridge, but near our turnaround point, it clung to the edge of a steep rocky slope. It warned us not to go any further if we had a fear of heights and it turns out that we don't - so that's good to know! We ended at a curve in the trail with a perfect view - we looked at Mt. St. Helens from directly opposite the crater, could see the peak of Mt. Adams, Spirit Lake, and the whole area in front of us was what was most affected by the eruption. It was really incredible to see everything in person - we'd always heard about the eruption, but never knew how devastating it was to the area nearby. Everywhere we looked from up on the ridge, we could see flattened tree trunks fanning outward from where they were knocked over from the volcanic blast. I guess I always thought nature worked faster - it's been over 30 years and those trees haven't rotted away yet! 

It was a perfect hike and a perfect time of day, especially on our return hike. The trail continued on all the way to Mt. Adams, but it was time for us to head home!

Lake Tahoe : Heavenly Gondola

Things I learned about Lake Tahoe : it's 6,000 feet high in the Sierra Nevada mountains, it's so clear that you can see a white plate submerged 75 feet underwater, there are tons of ski resorts in the area, and it gets pretty cold at night - even in June.

One of the ski resorts has summertime activities - you can ride its gondola 3,000 feet up to a crazy view of the lake from above. The base of the gondola was only a few blocks from our hotel, so we walked over on our second day there and rode it up the steep mountain slopes. 

The view from the mountain was incredible! The lake's water was just so blue - and the surrounding mountains so pretty. The gondola stopped partway up the slope at the viewpoint above - and then it continued to the (ski) lodge and a flat area. There, you could buy overpriced food and drinks, do rope courses, or take a chair lift up another 1,000 feet to the top of the mountain. We thought we should go all the way to the top since we were already up there and the views didn't disappoint - we could see all the way to Carson City, more than 25 miles away!

Being up so high (10,000 feet!) was a new experience for all of us. I was afraid I might get sunburned, since it was so bright and sunny and I know that the sun's intensity gets higher as you go up in altitude. Luckily, thanks to sunscreen, a sun hat, and protective clothing, everything was fine! We took a break in the lodge before we headed back down and caught some of the world cup - which was on everywhere in Tahoe, even with score updates on highway billboards!

I bet skiing here is amazing - maybe someday, we'll come back in winter!