Olympic National Park

On Monday, April 7, the day after Uncle Howard's memorial gathering, we had the full day on our own before having to get back to the airport to fly home.  We decided to take advantage of the glorious, clear weather to drive up and scout out the Olympic National Park for a potential longer visit with our RV.


Olympic National Park is a huge wilderness situated on the Olympic Peninsula in the northwest corner of the State of Washington, a drive of over two hours from Seattle.  It embraces 1,440 square miles, 95% of which is wilderness that was protected by Act of Congress in 1988.  The park itself was designated as a national monument by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1909 as the "Mount Olympus National Monument."  It became a national park in 1938.  It became an International Biosphere Reserve, and in 1981 it was designated a World Heritage Site. The park has four basic regions: the Pacific coastline, alpine areas, the west side temperate rainforest and the forests of the drier east side.  It is therefore unique among national parks in presenting four completely distinct environments.


The vast majority of the park is inaccessible by road.  One can drive around it, using mainly US 101, but the trip would take over 6 hours and 325 miles.  While the park is probably best known for its temperate rain forests and large stands of old growth trees and diversity of flora and fauna, the most striking feature of the park to a visitor is the dominance of the Olympic Mountains, which define and frame the park.  If not for the mountains, the westerly winds from the Pacific Ocean would not drop half an inch of rain per day on the western slopes to create the rain forest.


Because of the mountains, in the winter and early spring, the park is snowbound.  The road to the highest accessible point of the park, Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center, can be closed for extended periods.


We were lucky, however, and when we visited the Park Information Center just south of Port Angeles, we learned that Hurricane Ridge Road was open.  We decided to drive the 17 miles to the ridge and see what we could see.


The first five miles saw rapid elevation gain.  We saw numerous deer along the road.  We found a scenic turnout that afforded a panoramic view of Puget Sound to the north.  The day was so clear that we could easily make out the city of Victoria, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, across the Sound.

As we rose, we eventually found roadside snow.  The peaks were all mantled in snow, and another scenic turnout gave us an opportunity to see a sight few people see:

Looking directly south, we could see majestic snow-capped mountains overlooking deep river valleys:

The Olympic Mountains are not volcanic, although Mt. Rainier, the regent of its own national park, and only perhaps 120 miles to the southeast, is a dormant volcano.  In contrast, the Olympic Mountains were formed by the upthrust that was caused by the subduction of the Pacific plate under the North American plate. This upthrust continues, but, as observed in the park film played at the Park Visitor Center, the erosion process that continually works on the mountains from water, ice and wind is just enough to balance the increases in elevation from upthrust, with the result that the mountains have been just about their current height for eons.

That scientific background really isn't necessary to an appreciation of the dramatic views that snow and the mountains produce:

At one of our scenic pullouts, a raven, observing that we had gotten out of the car, and knowing that humans often carry food, flew right up to the snowbank next to us and perched in as appealing manner as he could master, much as our big fat black cat Baxter tries to be appealing, hoping for an extra snack:

Hurricane Mountain Road ends at a visitor center, which also doubles as snow lodge.  When we arrived, a couple dozen people were snow tubing and poking around the 7-foot high snowdrifts beside the road.  A ski towrope stretched up the hill, and a separate mobile shelter announced that it was the place to purchase towrope tickets and ski lessons.

Here is a photo of the visitor center with the mountains in the background:

At the visitor center, unnamed humans had taken the time to roll immense snowballs across the wide fields of snow, perhaps in an effort to make an abominable snowman, or maybe just to demonstrate how to make very large snowballs:

Park service crews, even in April, were still actively plowing to try to clear the roads around the visitor center:

We decided that we'd seen enough to convince us that we should make another stop near the Olympic National Park in order to explore its other beauties:  the seashore and rain forest sections.  But the most scenic portions of the park are so inaccessible that we will probably have to plan backpacks.  We picked up a detailed hiking maps and backpack planning guide to help us think these issues through before we return in a year or two.

As we drove the 3.5 hours back to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, we talked at length about the park, its uniqueness, and how we might explore it.  We were so absorbed in conversation, we almost forgot to look up and westward on our drive to see what a magnificent view of Mt. Rainier this clear day presented to us!

Back at the airport, and waiting for our plane, we were treated to a beautiful sunset, which, with reflections of the modern lighting in the airport's huge windows, captured a plane ascending on its path toward some exotic destination, with others below awaiting their turn to explore the spaces above and beyond Seattle: