To celebrate Father’s Day I gave my dad the gift of peace, quiet, and not having to deal with me allll day long! The weather Sunday was absolutely beautiful and I made plans to head up to Hurricane Ridge with Jason (as always!), Rashell, and Jen. Rashell and Jen have lived here for a few years now, have always wanted to go to Hurricane Ridge, but somehow never seemed to find the time to make it up there. Jason and I love road trips…so problem solved. As usual, no adventure to the Olympic Peninsula is complete without a trip to the Oak Table Restaurant. We split a huge apple pancake for all 4 of us and I had a bacon and egg feast! I even got them to toss some chocolate chips in my side of pancakes that I saved for later with some leftover bacon on top. I’ve never managed to finish anything I order at the Oak Table. Just the way I like it! Nothing like finishing a hike knowing there’s bacon topped chocolate chip pancakes in the car…
I feel like Hurricane Ridge doesn’t even need an introduction.. if you go to Google and type in “Olympic Peninsula” you’re probably going to have pictures of it on the first page. With minimal traffic there is quite a bit of fun to be had on the road to the top as well. 😉 So, without further ado, here it is!
…and then the most ridiculous thing happened. This herd of mountain goats comes strolling down the path, so we slowly step off the road so they can pass and not butt us off the cliff. We’re all snapping away at photos as they meander further down. So amazing! but then they turn around and start coming back… Uh oh… There was a guy killed a few years ago by a mountain goat and Jason and I got chased by one on a hike last year.. I hate goats anyway (personal vendetta…long story) so I, at least, was getting mildly concerned since it seemed like the goats were being herded on both sides towards us. It was at this point that I look to the right and see a park ranger with a gun making the “step away slowly and quietly” hand signal. ::terror:: I didn’t want my last thoughts on earth to be about how I hope someone at least looks at my photos to see if I got anything good before I used it to defend myself against a rampaging, bloodthirsty mountain goat-zilla. Apparently the rangers have started shooting the goats with empty paintballs to “discourage” them from coming near humans. Gotta say, I haven’t been that scared in a long time. I hate goats.
So the goats ran away and we continued our hike. It will probably be another few weeks before the wildflowers fully bloom up here at elevation. We just may have to come back!
We ended our hike completely worn out and, surprisingly, slightly hungry. We didn’t have the energy to explore Port Angeles, but we did stop by a crepe restaurant for some crepes! (I had blueberry and brown sugar) So, all in all, a pretty stellar day! 🙂