By Seabury Blair Jr. For Peninsula Daily News
If you’re a fan of winter recreation around this neck of the woods, you already know that a landslide has closed Hurricane Ridge Road.
It probably won’t be fixed and reopened until early March.
All access, including hiking and biking on the road, is prohibited, and the Heart O’ the Hills Campground just beyond the slide has been shut down.
That’s the bad news.
Here’s the good news: if you’ve got a weekend to spend, and you don’t mind working a bit to get there, you can enjoy a winter outing at Hurricane Ridge.
As it happens, another road leads to Hurricane Ridge.
It was closed about a half-century ago, but it is still easily followed and sometimes used by park rangers, skiers and snowshoe hikers when Hurricane Ridge Road is closed.
It’s called the Wolf Creek Trail, an 8-mile abandoned roadway that was once the only auto access to Hurricane Ridge.
The trailhead is located at Whiskey Bend, 5 miles from the Elwha River Ranger Station.
Though the Whiskey Bend Road is usually not maintained in the winter, it is often passable throughout the year.
And in this El Niño year of low snowfall totals (so far), it is likely you’ll be able to reach the trailhead without a problem.
But since snowstorms can sweep in on a moment’s notice, it’s always wise to call for the latest recorded report on Olympic National Park roads before any outing — 360-565-3131.
(Barring heavy snows or winter storms, Hurricane Ridge Road is normally open 9 a.m. to dusk Friday through Sunday from late November through the end of March.
(The road is closed Monday through Thursday during the winter season, except for Monday holidays and an extended period during the Christmas-New Year’s holiday.)
Since it is an old road grade used by autos dating to the 1950s, you’ll discover that the Wolf Creek Trail is a gentler grade than many Olympic National Park trails.
It climbs in wide switchbacks up a forested ridge between Idaho and Wolf creeks.
The Seattle Press Expedition, incidentally, named Wolf Creek in 1899.
It was there that the first white Olympic exploring party encountered and shot a wolf, a common species in the early Olympic Mountains, although they are extinct in the area now.
The trailhead is 1,150 feet above sea level, and the trail joins Hurricane Hill Road about 0.7 miles below the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center, 5,150 feet above sea level.
That would make an 8-mile climb of 4,000 vertical feet, or an average of 500 vertical feet per mile.
This year (again, so far), you can expect to carry your skis or snowshoes 4 miles or more up the trail.
Figure on putting on the shoes or boards about 4,000 feet above sea level, probably just about the time you begin to encounter open slopes.
“It’s going to be skiing or snowshoeing the last number of miles,” said Barb Maynes, park spokeswoman.
To begin, climb from the parking area to the north, around the stock area.
The trail makes a wide turn north around the open area and into the forest to the south.
It’s a gentle climbing traverse through the forest, which at lower elevations appears to have been the victim of an old wildfire.
Trees here aren’t the massive fir, cedar or hemlock you’d expect to find in the virgin Olympic forests.
You’ll probably encounter downed trees across the trail in spots, and perhaps have to navigate wet or marshy areas where old timber drains built into the road have rotted and failed.
The route continues along the southern side of the ridge, with occasional peekaboo views through the forest of the Elwha River Valley below.
At about 2.5 miles from the trailhead, you’ll approach a turn just above Wolf Creek, down a steep and slippery shale cliff to the north.
In another half-mile, you’ll find a sharp hairpin where the trail begins to climb more steeply and encounter a series of switchbacks as the trail gains the ridgecrest.
From here, you’ll walk directly along the crest of the ridge for about another mile, and then begin a couple of steep switchbacks as you cross gullies formed by the infant Wolf Creek.
If you’re camping overnight, a switchback just beyond the creek crossing, about 6 miles from the trailhead, provides a flat area for a tent.
The creek is a good source of water if you’re packing a filter or purification tablets.
From there, the trail traverses steeper, more open hillsides and is likely covered by snow.
The route traverses and climbs in and out of three steep gullies, then switches back a couple of times before turning to the northeast and climbing across a wide meadow to Hurricane Ridge Road.
If at some point the route becomes indistinct, it might be easier to turn uphill and climb directly to the northeast to the crest of the ridge.
You’ll encounter the Hurricane Hill Road at some point, which follows the ridgecrest from the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center for 2 miles to the Hurricane Hill parking area.
Strong snowshoe hikers and cross country skiers in good physical condition can make this hike in a single day.
If that’s the plan, consider making a base camp at the Elwha Campground, open with limited services in the winter, but it’s better to plan an overnight adventure.
You can camp near Wolf Creek, about 6 miles from the trailhead, or on the flat ridge just below the final climb to Hurricane Hill Road.
It’s best to expect no services to be available at the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center, Maynes said, until the road reopens next month.
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Seabury Blair Jr. can be reached at Skiberry@pwimail.net.
