Subalpine meadow soils at Hurricane Ridge are thin and extremely slow to form in the cold, short-season climate, and the vegetation is easily damaged by foot traffic. The park maintains boardwalks and paved trails and asks visitors to stay on them, since off-trail trampling can scar fragile alpine plant communities that may take decades or longer to recover.
Heading down, carry a little protectiveness for the high country with you. Those meadows look tough, but the thin alpine soil and slow-growing plants are about as delicate as wild things get. The careful way people move up there, on the trails, off the flowers, is the whole reason it still looks like that. You helped keep it that way today, just by treading light.
Photo: Olympic National Park (NPS) · Public Domain
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