Miles: 7.6 miles RT
Elevation Gain/Highest: 2372ft/4252ft
Map: Custom Correct Hurricane Ridge, Green Trails Port Angeles 103
Favorite Eats After Hike: Butcher & Baker Provisions, Turnip The Beet, Yodelin, Nourish Sequim, Finn River, or just Pack A Cooler. You can learn more about these places in my Must Hike Must Eat Eating Out Guide.
Find out current conditions and as always, practice Leave No Trace. Pretty please.
My hike:
I wrote a commentary on this hike on Lake Angeles: This Trail Had It All if you would like to hear about some of the interesting behaviors we witnessed instead of just the trail conditions!
1/20/2018
We headed over as a Mountaineer group led by my friend Kari, hopeful for snowshoeing at Obstruction Point in the Olympic National Park but due to less than stellar weather and more importantly the shutting down of government agencies, we opted for Lake Angeles on the Heather Park Trail that had a trailhead just outside the locked gate on Hurricane Ridge Road.
There were about 25 other cars in the parking lots when we started up at a leisurely hour of almost 11am so we had no doubt we wouldn’t be the only ones on the trail today. Our snowshoes were on our packs as there was not even a dusting of snow until about 2,500ft and even then no real accumulation until 3,000ft as we followed Ennis Creek up.
The footbridge over NoName creek at 2,620ft and about 1.1 mile in was ice covered so I put on my spikes but the rest of the group did fine without. After this point, the trail makes its way through a section that has clearly seen some avalanche action evidenced with piles of uprooted logs cut to make way for hikers.
From here, the trail hit some fairly easy switchbacks and then continued to climb along NoName that flows from Lake Angeles until we arrived at the lake at 4252ft and a bit after 1pm. The snow had deepened upon our approach but with the amount of people on the trail today it was compact enough to not necessitate taking our snowshoes off our packs.
We wandered down to the lake briefly to enjoy the view of the cliffs and ridge surrounding the frozen water but took shelter in the trees for a lunch until our cold fingers meant moving on. The robber jays were out in full force, clearly habituated to visitors feeding them.
Making our way around the lake a bit further in the deep snow for a different viewpoint, we were hopeful as the sun tried desperately to break through the low cloud cover. It was not to be and we began our return trip, arriving back at the cars just shy of 4pm after passing quite a few other hikers heading up to enjoy the lake.
Directions: Starting in HWY 101 in Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula, turn south onto Race St and drive a little over a mile to where the road passes the Visitors and Wilderness Information Center (which was under repairs at the time of this trip) and then keep right to stay on Hurricane Ridge Road or Heart of the Hills Parkway for another 5 miles. The road to the trailhead is to the right just before the park’s booth and across from the campground. There is parking below and parking up around the corner closer to the trailheads.
Visit my Olympic Peninsula page for more hikes and snowshoes near here.
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