The story
Hurricane Ridge receives heavy snowfall, often accumulating thirty to forty feet over a winter, and the upper road typically closes seasonally. Plows cut through deep snow to reopen it in spring, and snowbanks can linger into early summer. The extreme snowpack creates a very short subalpine growing season at the top of the road.
Heading down, picture this road in deep winter, buried under thirty or forty feet of snow, gated and silent for months. What you drove up today is a brief summer window, plowed open between long seasons of white. The high country gives people only a few warm months before it locks the door again. You caught it open. Not everyone does.
Photo: Cody Logan (Clpo13) · CC BY-SA 4.0
