Hurricane Ridge ride
Today, I took a little ride to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. It was only 260 miles round trip, but it took all day because I kept stopping…to get warm…to take pictures…to stretch my legs…and just to pause in enjoyment of the journey, instead of being focused only on reaching Hurricane Ridge.
I had not visited Hurricane Ridge since my teen years. My memory of the grandeur of the landscape had faded over the years, so it was a delight to renew my acquaintance with these views.
Click here to view the photo gallery from this trip.
Harvesting oysters in the fog
While cruising north on Highway 101 along the west side of Hood Canal, I saw a man harvesting oysters from his beach. The fog was thick on the water behind his little gravel peninsula.
I couldn’t slow down soon enough to get this shot the first time. After I turned around and found a place to perch on the shoulder of the highway, it was about ten minutes later when the man returned with a second bucket, and that’s when I took this photo.
Behind me, the hillside sloping up from Hood Canal was covered with Big Leaf Maple trees, and almost all the leaves had turned gold, and most were still on the trees.
Near the entrance to Olympic National Park, the road has been repaved all the way to the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center. Crews were still painting lines and reseeding road cuts today.
Port Angeles from Hurricane Ridge
Port Angeles was barely visible from high atop Hurricane Ridge.
This photo was taken from a paved walking trail on the northern side of the ridge. I was using the maximum telephoto setting on my camera, and trying not to shake the camera while gusts of wind hit me from behind. There was some fresh snow just a few feet away from me, and although the sun was out, it was definitely a brisk fall day.
Unfortunately, there was too much haze to see into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. I was hoping it would have been clear enough to see Vancouver Island, but it was not to be on this trip.
Olympic foothills from Hurricane Ridge
It was a beautiful, crisp fall day. Although the pictures don’t show it, Hurricane Ridge was living up to it’s name with very strong wind gusts blasting icy air over the ridge.
For the return trip, I went over the Hood Canal Bridge. (I had forgotten parts of the bridge surface consist of metal grating, and I was pretty nervous about taking the bike over the bridge…but it worked just fine. I pressed down with my feet to shift the center of gravity to a lower position, and relaxed my hands so I was barely gripping the handlebars. I had no trouble at all.) Although there was some late afternoon stop-and-go traffic on Highway 3 in Bremerton, the trip south to Shelton was uneventful.
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