Today we are visiting Olympic on our Vespa, using the entrance to the park from Port Angeles: Hurricane Ridge. We stopped at the Visitor Center first to get maps and get acquainted with the area. The climb to the top is pretty steep but the panorama keeps getting better and better. We drive a total of about 35 miles with our Vespa today.
At the top, we join a group ready for a ranger talk and we learn a lot about Olympic - most notably the fact that it's the most pristine park in the US, with just a few roads penetrating only a few miles into the park, the rest is totally wild, unspoiled since this area became protected wilderness. We are also told that seldom there are days as clear and warm as today. Aha! Our bad luck is over!!!! Our view is limited only by human abilities to see far. What we see around us is about 50 miles of mountain peaks, or a total of over 1,5 million acres of forest. Olympic has about 600 glaciers in total, the highest number outside Alaska. We also learn that there are about 50 species of mammals and birds that are unique to the park, having remained isolated for a long time during the glacial era, they developed in their own peculiar way and have unique genetic compositions. The Olympic chipmunk is one of them and found nowhere else in the world. This park has it all: pristine wilderness, lakes, rivers and creeks, glaciers, alpine meadows - even a rain forest on the western portion - hot springs, sand dunes and desert-like habitats. It's the most diverse we have visited so far, and the one we can't really penetrate.
We take a hike around the ridge to get to an overlook point and we even pass a ski patrol hut, apparently there is downhill skiing up here in winter. All the trails also become X-country trails in the winter. Something to keep in mind...
After stopping for groceries in the town, we are back to camp, ready for a hearty meal and a movie.
Welcome to Olympic National Park.
The Straight of Juan de Fuca, separating the US from Canada.
The ranger also had some hands-on exhibits: I got to lift one elk antler, it weighed about 13 lb. Enough to give anybody a headache!
A view of the impenetrable forest.
From the top of the ridge, you can see a bit of the winding trail.
This is the road we climbed with the Vespa.
The panorama to the left...
and to the right.