Day 3 - Hurricane Ridge & Lake Crescent

We didn't get an early start this morning - as far as photographers are concerned, anyway - but we made it to the Hurricane Hill trailhead by about 7:30am and were the first car in the parking lot. The hike to the top of Hurricane Hill is moderately difficult, about 3 miles roundtrip and is steep in some sections. The morning air was cool and refreshing and the mountain views and terrain reminded us of home (Colorado). We saw quite a few black tailed deer as we hiked the trail. The bucks were just growing their antlers, all in fresh velvet. We also spied a marmot on a far hillside. He was soaking in the morning sun, laying belly-flat on a large rock. As you climb the views get better and better. Some pitches of the trail are fairly steep, even for those of us familiar with the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. The scenery from the top is spectacular in all directions. One can look North out across the Strait of Juan de Fuca towards Canada and the island of Victoria. And the East, South and West views encompass the Olympic mountain range.

We had just started heading down from the summit when we noticed a pair of hikers, below us, waving to us. For a few seconds we didn't know what they were trying to tell us and then it became clear that they wanted us to stop. They were pointing to a small ridge below the trail just in front of us. I immediately expected to see a group of black tailed deer bounding over the ridge. But instead... a lone coyote slipped across the trail, not more than 15 yards in front of us. His pelt was shiny and healthy and he did not seem the least concerned over our presence. He continued trotting up the hill towards a grouping of fir trees and disappeared into their cover. This was a treat of a wildlife viewing. Coyotes are mostly nocturnal, rather skittish and usually run like the wind when discovered by humans. And I've never seen a coyote in this type of alpine setting. We greeted our fellow hikers with big smiles and they asked me, in thickly German accented English, whether or not that was a wolf. I did my best to explain that it was a coyote and I think they understood me. They were very happy, none the less, and told us that the coyote had followed the trail most of the way up. They had sights of him during their entire morning hike.

As we were about to arrive at the trailhead and parking lot, we noticed a group of black tailed deer. They were obviously quite accustom to humans and practically struck a pose while I photographed them with the mountains in the background...

Back at the car we refreshed ourselves with cold water and a snack before heading down to the visitor's center on Hurricane Ridge. Here there are many interpretive signs and easy trails meandering through the adjacent meadows. We poked around the visitor's center for a while (picked up a little something for our friend taking care of our pets back home) and then headed back down the road. We stopped for a nice picnic lunch, in the sunshine, at the Lookout Rock pull-off and then headed back down into Port Angeles. We could have spent more time on Hurricane Ridge - and we did return in the evening for sunset photography - but  we found this area too similar to home and we were anticipating the lush rainforests. We had plenty of time left in our day so we headed down Highway 101 to get a taste of the different environments in Olympic National Park.

The Marymere Falls Trailhead parking lot is on the right as the road swings around the south shore of Lake Crescent. The lake is beautifully clear and blue-green. The falls is a short 1 mile hike through stately old growth forests. There are infinite photographic opportunities here. I love making images of waterfalls and I always seek them out during my travels. But I found the dense forest and green moss along the trail very appealing also. The light under the forest canopy is challenging to photograph, but we had partly cloudy skies which were an immense help with the high contrast scenes. We spent a couple hours hiking the trail and enjoying the forest. By this time of the day and on this easy walking trail there were quite a few people, but not so many as to spoil the experience. I unpacked my large format gear several times and really enjoyed the slow process of envisioning my images.

We arrived back at the trailhead late in the afternoon, but decided to continue down the road to Sol Duc Falls. This is another short hike from the trailhead. There are many cascades along the trail before reaching the falls.

Sol Duc Falls is difficult to photograph from the bridge that crosses the chasm that the falls enter. The most common image of the falls is positioned further downstream from the falls and includes the bridge. On this day, though, the bright sun was shining and creating a rainbow in the mist created by the falls. I liked the interesting effect.

After our fun-filled and busy day, we returned to Port Angeles. We scoped out where we will be catching the ferry to Victoria tomorrow and dined at The Landing before calling it a day...