Hurricane Ridge is a mountainous area in Olympic NP, about 18 miles south of Port Angeles, Washington. Hurricane Ridge is named for its intense gales and winds. The weather in this part of the Olympic Mountains is unpredictable, with the possibility of snow at any time of year. The area receives 400 inches of snowfall annually.

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Noting a group of people against the upper of the meadows, and hiked the Big Meadows Loop to see what was happening. A number of ptarmigans were resting on the ground near an area of shrubs.

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Further along the trail, a number of deer were casually browsing as the walked along the trail, too friendly for their own good.

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Even a butterfly got into the action.

The drive from Hurricane Ridge westward took us past three sparkling glacial lakes: Sutherland, Crescent, and Pleasant. LakesSutherland and Crescent were at one time a single large like, however a massive landslide some 7,000 years ago isolated Lake Crescent from Lake Sutherland. Lake Crescent, the largest of the three, lies entirely within Olympia NP. It is over 600 feet deep, and provides significant recreational opportunities for people visiting the national park.

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We arrived at our overnight accommodations in Forks, Washington, and were surprised to see a crowd lined up on one of the roadside sidewalks.. Forks, Washington, is where the movie Twilight was filmed; we apparently arrived on the weekend in which the “Forever Twilight in Forks” Festival is celebrated. (For many years, the city’s economy was fueled by the local timber industry. More recently it has drawn tourism related to the novel series of Twilight and films of the same name, set in Forks.)

After dinner we visited Rialto Beach, known for its rocky beaches, giant drift logs, pounding waves, and views of offshore islands known as “sea stacks”.

We overnighted in the two story, expensive, but average, Airbnb