Hurricane Ridge Road climbs roughly seventeen miles and nearly a mile in elevation from Port Angeles to the high subalpine country of Hurricane Ridge. The Olympic Mountains are not volcanic; they are uplifted marine rock, scraped off the subducting Juan de Fuca plate and thrust skyward over millions of years, making the range geologically unusual among America's great mountain parks.
Coming back down now, and the whole valley opens up below you the way it never does on the way up. Port Angeles, the Strait, the water going silver in the light. Same road, mirror image. On the climb you were looking up at seafloor lifted into the sky. Now you're sliding back down toward the actual sea it came from. Ease off the gas and let it carry you.
Photo: Dllu · CC BY-SA 4.0
