Hurricane Ridge

I woke up at 5:30, looked out the window and saw the mountains bathed in the light from the rising sun, with blue skies all around, and said "Let's go to Hurricane Ridge!"  My adventure buddy Rick was up for it too. There's no sense going up the mountains for the incredible views if they're in the clouds, which they have been since we got here. This was the first really clear day, and lucky for us it stayed that way all day.

On the drive up we were the only ones on the road, and the only ones at the Visitor's Center up top, which wasn't open yet when we got there. It was totally silent, except for the singing of a few birds. 

Hurricane Ridge is one of the "must see" places around here, as it gives you a view of the whole Olympic Range and a 360 degree perspective of the peninsula in relation to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Salish Sea, Vancouver Island and even the Cascades.  

In the next photo you can just barely make out a faint but huge Mt. Baker in the distance, 

across the Salish Sea, about 100 miles way. (Salish Sea is one of the ways to describe the total of all the straits, bays, sounds, etc. that stretch from Canada down to Tacoma.)

This is the view north over the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Vancouver and the San Juan Islands. Unfortunately they're too far away to get a good picture of. You'll just have to believe me.

In the next picture, Mt. Olympus is the peak on the far left, 

and just below it and to the right, the wrinkly snow marks the Blue Glacier.  

On the way back down we got the best view of all - 

a mother bear and her very young cub crossing the road.