Hurricane Ridge-Snow Edition

This holiday season has been one for the books. So many holiday traditions were continued, lots of family time and new memories. Being former Minnesotans, we just couldn’t have Christmas without some snow! We set out on an adventure to find some. Hurricane Ridge is a favorite spot of ours. It’s located inside the Olympic National Park and an easy day trip for us! The 17 miles up the mountain leave my heart pounding on a nice summer day so I wasn’t sure I was going to make it during winter. Well thankfully I am married to a wonderful man who only teased me a little bit and did a good job to distract me. We made it up and down with no issues! Thankfully the road conditions were really good (parking lot was pretty snowy/icy) and we didn’t even need our tire chains!

And of course the views were beautiful the entire way up and at the top. It was truly a winter wonderland. I enjoyed seeing a familiar place in a new season. It was like exploring it for the first time! We have seen snow at the top of the mountain in June but nothing like this! So breathtaking.

There is a free sledding area for kids 8 and under located just past the visitors center. We went on the weekend and it wasn’t terribly crowded. The parking lot at the visitor center is small so that helps limit how many people can be up there. The road opened at 8 am and I would say by 11 all the parking was full. There is also skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing and hiking so not everyone there is using the sledding area! We stayed most of the day and took a break to warm up in the car (due to the seating in the visitors center being full). Soup and hot chocolate for the win!