Motorcycle Trip on the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry to Hurricane Ridge June 10, 2022
This ride is a nice day trip over to the Peninsula on the Edmonds-Kingston ferry. Starting from Edmonds Ferry dock to hurricane ridge the ride is about 2.5 hours (including Gas and food), 5 hours round trip. Of course it depends on how much time you have to wait for the ferry to arrive. Since I was riding my motorcycle the '2 hour wait at ferry' signs didn't apply, no wait for me, 'While motorcycles are not, by Washington Administrative Code (WAC 468-300-700), a preferential loading category of users, they are often loaded prior to automobiles for operational and staging purposes.' (your mileage may vary, some ferry's do not load motorcycles first). When you approach the ferry in Edmonds you go directly the dock, go inside the passenger terminal, buy your ticket and load on the next available boat. Same on Kingston, even if there is a line of cars, bypass them and go to the ticket booth directly. Note that there are times when the schedule is 'adjusted' when a boat is down for repairs or crews are unavailable.
The LOOOONG video of the ride is from Edmonds getting on the ferry, to Hurricane Ridge and back to Edmonds. It is part of my 'Slow TV' videos. This second video is a shorter 45 minute video of JUST going up Hurricane Ridge and back down. Please note you will need a National Parks pass or buy a ticket at the gate. The weather at Hurricane Ridge is always interesting. Coming back down about halfway I ran into a HEAVY fog bank. Had to slow down so that my speed matched the distance of the headlights, don't want to run into anything on that road. Be SURE to ckeck out the weather at the top of the ridge and the Web Cam's. I have been there several times and gotten everything from sleet / rain to sunshine that baked me. Three days after this visit there was a 40 percent chance for snow.
If the clouds are burned away while on the ferry you can see Mt Rainier and Mt Baker, two of our North-West volcanoes. These pictures are from a ride to Hurricane Ridge in September of last year when the skies were clear, they are the white mark (?bluish?) right in the middle of each picture:
I usually stop at the Black Bear Diner in Sequim (pronounced 'skwim' or 'squim') for breakfast on the way in, good all around all American food. But I wasn't hungry yet.
Obligatory bike picture looking at the mountains from the Visitors Center:
The next three pictures are from last September. By September quite a bit of the snow had melted from the Olympic Mountains. Looking towards Canada at the top of the ridge to the north (this is a fairly short walk up the slope away from the Visitors Center):
The next two pictures are from the patio of the Visitors Center looking south towards the Olympic Mountain range:
The next three pictures were taken on June 10, 2022 from the patio of the Visitors Center looking south and east (the entrance to the parking lot) towards the Olympic Mountain range. You can see the snow that is still on the Olympic range:
Looking east towards the entrance to the parking lot:
And finally looking south and slightly west:
If you continue past the parking lot there is a RV parking space and a road heading downhill to a picnic area. I decided to walk down in the trees and I am glad I did. You see glimpses of mountains through the trees:
And finally I found this beautiful view of a valley and the mountains behind it:
I walked back up to the Visitors Center, rested and continued back home. As said above, the ride down was interesting. Ran into the fog / cloud bank about halfway through the ride. The tunnels were black until my eyes adjusted and I could see out the other end. Don't outrun your headlights. Curves all around.
In Port Angeles there are several restaurants downtown in the same area, I ate at the Hook and Line Pub. Good smoked salmon chowder and Caesar salad.
When you ride up to the dock in Kingston you can get a sense of the ferry, double deck, large (then again large is relative). It can carry busses, heavy equipment:
Motorcycle Trips
Any questions or comments send me e-mail
Username = "GandalfDDI"
E-Mail = "Outlook.Com"
Obviously to send me e-mail just put the preceding two together --> Username@E-Mail (this is to minimize the amount of SPAM I get thank you)
Elevations for this ride so you can predict how cold you may get or if you may need to take breaks for altitude changes. Y Axis is altitude feet, X Axis is Miles travelled:
