You might think that since we are in retirement/vacation
mode that we have a leisurely pace, but we decided to get up at 4:30am! The sign at the campground gate said it
opened at 7am, but the staff assured us it would be open at 5am, and it was. We
didn’t have a reservation on the 6:10am ferry from Victoria,
British Columbia to Port Angeles, WA,
but fortunately got some of the last space remaining. The ferry pulled out of Victoria in the early morning light.
Back in the US,
we stocked up on groceries and had lunch at our campsite at a county park about
50 feet from the ocean, but thick fog obscured the view.
We headed for Olympic National Park, watching their video.
We enjoy the National Park videos as they often show footage of the park that
you never get to see. Then we went up,
up, up… to Hurricane Ridge (5242ft and our journey started at sea level). Glad we weren’t pulling the trailer. But we loved the view!
One of the most prominent mountains was Mt Carrie.
Glad we had this mountain in view as it reminded us to pray
for our daughter Carrie who at that moment was flying to Uganda. And we are thankful for our daughter, Kate,
who was able to send Carrie off.
We hiked up the Hurricane Hill trail (1.6 miles, 700 feet of
elevation).
Spectacular views in every direction – glacier capped peaks,
jagged mountains, flower-filled meadows, and the ocean in the distance. Just breathtaking… probably one of our top ten
hikes! We even saw some wildlife. This black-tailed
deer led us along the path for a while.
A mountain goat.
Since this Olympic marmot didn’t move at first, we joked
that maybe it was one of those hand-puppets we see in gift shops.
We were told this is a quail. What do you think?
And this guy! Well, not really wildlife… Barbara made him. :-)
