After the tunnels, 9 miles [14.5 kilometers] in, stop at a pullover and look at the rock faces above the road. The bubbles of rock, called pillow basalt, are a clue that these mountains began under the ocean; when hot lava oozes into seawater, its surface cools and hardens quickly, often forming the globules you see here.
Drive on toward Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center. Plaques identify the peaks and glaciers of the inner Olympics. Mt. Olympus carries seven of Olympic’s 60 major glaciers. Its Blue Glacier receives some 500 inches [1,270 centimeters] of snow a year and flows downhill as much as 5 inches [12.7 centimeters] a day.
You will probably see black-tailed deer here, and possibly Olympic marmots that whistle when approached. Most of the trees are subalpine fir. Their distinctive steeple shape helps shed snow. Near tree line, a 3-foot-tall [0.9-meter-tall] tree may be 100 years old; summer wildflowers thrive where no tree can take hold.
Fine picnic sites lie toward the end of the road, about a mile [1.6 kilometers] beyond Hurricane Ridge. Try the Hurricane Hill Trail, starting where the road ends, for 3 miles [4.8 kilometers] (round-trip) of wildflowers and stunning mountain views. Layers of sedimentary rock along the trail stand folded and tilted on end from the continental collision.
If you prefer to continue driving—some of it is tricky—take the 8-mile [12.9-kilometer], unpaved road to Obstruction Peak from the east end of the Hurricane Ridge parking lot for the park’s best windshield view of Mt. Olympus and some of Olympic’s most diverse wildflower displays. The road generally opens by July 4. Grand Valley Trail (3.5 miles [5.6 kilometers] one way) starts at the parking lot at road’s end. Take at least a stroll on it for grand ridgetop views. Then double back to Port Angeles and pick up US 101 west.
The highway passes Lake Sutherland before tracing the southern shore of Lake Crescent. Carved by a glacier, the two lakes began as one, but a great landslide created the dam that now divides them. Indian legend says that Mount Storm King, angered at the fighting between the Quileute and Clallam Indians, threw down a boulder, killing the combatants and splitting the lake in two. Lake Crescent, 600 feet [182.9 meters] deep, is known for its azure waters and trout.
Turn off at the Storm King Information Station to walk the Marymere Falls Trail, a 1.75-mile [2.8-kilometer] round-trip through lowland forest to a graceful, 90-foot [27.4-meter] waterfall. Fifty cents buys a booklet that identifies the trees—mostly Douglas-fir and western hemlock, with a few western red cedar. Back in the car, time permitting, turn left 1.5 miles [2.4 kilometers] west of Fairholm to take the 14-mile [22.5-kilometer] road to Sol Duc. Indians, who named the springs Sol Duc, or “sparkling water,” probably used the hot springs for medicinal treatments. Travelers have soothed tired muscles in pools here since a resort was first established in 1912. In case you want to stroll before you soak, the Sol Duc Falls Trail, starting at the end of the road, leads through a mile [1.6 kilometers] of dense forest to a waterfall.
