Day 25 Port Angeles to South Prairie, WA

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Day25: Port Angeles, WA to South Prairie, WA





What a beautiful day this day!! Clear skies, little haze, and no wind. We broke camp and headed to the Olympic NP visitors center in Port Angeles. Kerry dropped his trailer and we pilled into their van and drove up Hurricane Ridge Road to the top (well, almost the top) of Hurricane Hill, Elevation 5240 ft. The snow drifts were around 12' deep up there, it was windy and cold! Had to pick Milo up and carry him after a while because his paws were getting cold. There were some clouds so we didn't really get a good look at Mt. Olympus - - think we saw just a tiny part of it. Stopped at several pullouts on the way down and had great views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Puget Sound, Mt. Baker and the surrounding mountains. When we got down, we hooked up Magee's trailer and headed towards Mt. Rainier NP. We crossed of the Tacoma Narrows on the famous bridge (actually, now it is two bridges) before Kerry had another flat on the trailer (IN REALLY HEAVY TACOMA TRAFFIC). A Highway Patrolman stopped and offered the use of a floor jack he carried with him. He was a really nice guy and looked like he was maybe in his middle 20's - - he had 15 years in with the HP, and told me he was paying off his house next week (that was after he had asked if we were retired and I told him yes and that the secret to a good retirement was having your house paid for). We went looking for a new spare tire - - found a huge Super Walmart but no tire - - went to another Walmart which the first one said would have the tire he needed - - no dice. We split up while Magee's went looking for a tire, Hixsons headed for a campground Charlie had found that had two spaces available. Hixsons found the CG and registered. It had started raining just we got to the CG and by the time Bob got us registered, Magees showed up, but it was really raining hard. The rain lasted, perhaps, 40 minutes and then it cleared up. We can see Mt. Rainier from the campground entrance.

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Photos

Olympic Mtns
from Hurricane Ridge

Snow bank
at Hurricane Ridge in Olympic NP

Tacoma Narrows Bridge
Towers on the left held the original bridge dubbed "Galloping Gertie" because in a 45mph wind it started oscillating, broke and fell into the narrows.