Leigh Ann in Washington State
Hike report and photos by Leigh Ann
From May 23 – May 29, my husband John and I were in the Seattle, WA, area. For the first few days his conference kept him in Seattle, so I went to the Snoqualmie Pass to do day hikes. The first four pictures are from hikes I did on those days. On that Monday, I went to Rattlesnake Ledge (no rattlesnakes in that part of Washington, so…), which was very popular with a crowd at the top. The next two days I hiked Little Si Peak, which was less populated, prettier, and with which I was in love. Both hikes are rated as easy for that area, which I’m guessing means easy compared to summiting Mount Ranier. These were 4-5-mile, out-and-back hikes with about 1000 feet of elevation change per mile.
When John’s conference was over, we took Mark and Ellie Sussman’s suggestion and went to the Olympic Peninsula, stayed in Port Angeles, and hiked on Hurricane Ridge and in the Hoh Valley. Thank you for these suggestions, folks! We found a great place to stay (Angeles Motel – the Yelp reviews are accurate) and got very different types of amazing hiking on the Ridge and in the Valley.
Hurricane Ridge looks out onto Mt. Olympus, which we could see once we passed mile marker 13 (or of 18) to get up to the trailhead. One picture shows what the clouds looked like right as we got above them. We found the trailhead easy to get to, and the views were rewarding once we got above the pounding rain and deep fog that almost turned us back before mile marker 13.
The Hoh Valley is the wettest place in the 48 contiguous states (140 inches of rain per year), and the trees are covered with club moss that never touches the ground and lives on dust and rain. The pictures of the Hoh Valley show what spring looked like there: broadleaf maples were in their Chartreuse stage and were exploding out from under the moss.
Coming back to the Finger Lakes was amazing because the weather was so bright!
