I leave you with the photos of the day, and we move onward around the Olympic Peninsula!
On the other side of Olympic National Park is a place quite different from the rocky Pacific shore with it’s giant drift logs and brilliant tide pools. The Olympic Mountains are home to alpine wildflowers, pine forests, waterfalls, marmots, and the Hoh Rainforest. Hurricane Ridge is the most accessible montane area and the Hurricane Hill hike is a popular one that we chose to repeat. Old Man's Whiskers When we visited three years ago at the same time of year this trail was still covered in snow in some places. We saw no snow at all this time and the wildflowers were beginning to pop out all along the trail. We saw glacier lillies and tiger lillies and larkspur and lupine. There were also Indian Paintbrush, spreading phlox, shasta daisies, Old Man’s whiskers, Silky Phacelia, and other floral capitalization errors. But our best spot of the day was the mountain goat mama and her twins. Mama sporting the latest "hazardous goat" fashions. The park has had some recent problems with habituated goats. They can be aggressive, especially when they feel their young are threatened. We did our best to stay well away while enjoying them, but long after we thought they had moved down the valley, they emerged from behind a tree not ten feet away from us. A ranger told Kevin they have actually hired "goat hazers" to help instill a little fear of humans back in them. I want that job. I think there would be plenty of great blog posts and I might even get invited to more parties. not shot with the long lens, she is really that close Later we had a picnic near the trailhead and were visited by some pretty tame deer. This also happened the last time we were here. So if you can handle the feeling that you are being watched, this is a pretty sweet lunch spot.
I leave you with the photos of the day, and we move onward around the Olympic Peninsula!
Mary Ellen McConnell
7/13/2013 08:31:17 pm
Love, love reading your blog!
Jennifer Keiter
7/14/2013 12:51:28 am
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it.
Jennifer Keiter
7/14/2013 12:52:27 am
Well, there's some wildlife I'm thankful to have missed.
Jennifer Keiter
7/15/2013 04:26:03 pm
So much to love here!
Charlotte Keiter
7/15/2013 11:05:19 pm
Wow!!! Brings back some awesome and very happy memories. So, glad you identified the wildflowers. I remember many of them but not the larkspur or the whiskers. And the tall young lady has really grown...almost as tall as Mom!!! Remember the trail well. But no Brats or twin goats either. Happy Island hopping too. Love you guys
T.
7/17/2013 10:02:05 am
I think K and J shot up the same night. J is now 5'10"!
Jennifer Keiter
7/17/2013 03:29:20 pm
I feel so short right now. Comments are closed.
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