Olympic NP - Hurricane Ridge

Well, I finally gave up waiting for the smoke to clear.  So after a nice breakfast with my Iowa ties neighbors, I packed up my site and headed for the mountains.

The campground on the way up was already full, which was frustrating, but I continued on to the ridge anyway.  I figured I could find a place in town for the night without any problems.

Since the smoke obsecured the best of the views, I opted for a shorter hike that the ranger advised me still had plenty of wildflowers to enjoy.  Hurricane Hill was the summit at the end.  So, instead of mountain pics, there were a lot of flower pics.  Nice hike, but a steep ascent at the end.  Would have been nice to have a bench or two at the top to take a rest on.

On the way out of the upper parking lot, there was a group of young guys with skate boards.  I asked if the were heading down the main road out of the park, and they said yes.  I asked if I could go down in front of them, and they said no problem, they would let me go first.  I jokingly said "you will probably end up passing me anyway".  Image my surprise when about 8 miles down the road they popped up in my rear view mirror!  I sped up a bit, and they were pacing an average of 30-35 mph!  I finally got far enough in front of them, pulled off, then shot a quick video of them passing me.  After about 12 miles, they had pulled off and were waiting for their pick up vehicle. So amazing!

When I got to town, I started looking for a place to stay.  Seems I played a little too long in the park and all the hotels in town were full.  So, I texted Chris (Iowa native and still a Hawkeye fan) and Sarah and asked if their offer to let me camp in their back yard was still an option.  Luckily,  they are those nice kind of Iowa people, and they said I could come on over.  They offered to let me sleep in their camper instead of pitching my tent, and I took them up on the offer.  Best night if sleep I had all week!  Very kind and generous people.  I was lucky to have met them.