Hurricane Ridge Klahhane

We drove all the way to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic mountains for our toughest family hike yet.   Before we went I was prepping the kids for a long hike, but once we got there I realized that the original hike I planned was paved and half as long as I thought.  So after some debate we decided to go on the less popular but much harder Klahhane Ridge Hike.  Here is the description:

Klahhane Ridge: The first 2.8 miles of this trail is on a ridge to a junction with the Klahhane Switchback trail. An additional mile on the Switchback Trail climbs 800 ft. to Klahhane Ridge. +250 ft. first 2.8 miles.  3.8 one way.  

I just want to say this hike was hard and our kids are amazing for doing the whole thing.  That last mile was even tough for me and our kids were the only kids on the trail.  They got lots of comments by passersby on how cool it is that they are doing this hike.

That being said, the hike was so great!  The views were amazing and we saw tons of animals.  The first being a goat blocking our path!  Tucker almost walked right up to our first one without even noticing.

It was kind of funny because we weren't sure what to do.  I heard that just a couple years ago a goat on these trails killed someone so I was pretty weary.  Someone passed us and scared the goats off the path so we started to go.  Once we got closer the goats changed their mind and got back on the path an started walking toward us.  At this point the kids started getting really scared and I told everyone to climb up off the path.  Not an easy task because it was pretty steep up on one side and pretty steep down on the other.  Once we were mostly up the goats easily walked up toward us.  Now the kids were screaming as we all slid back down onto the path and hesitantly walked past them.

I took lots of pictures on the way back but not too many on the way there.  It did take us a couple hours to get to the top.  The view was breathtaking.

We hung out for a while and everyone ate lunch, including Calista.

Scarlett and Penelope were proud of the little shopkins they brought along.  Right after Scarlett's picture she asked me if I got the shopkin, I didn't realized she was holding it.

The kids were excited for the snow.  Crossing it was a little tricky for them because they were scared of slipping down.

Part of the struggle for the kids on this hike was that it had to be single file.  The path was skinny and parts were steep on both sides.  I was a little nervous watching Leon walk without holding hands but he did fine.  A lot of the kids wanted to hold hands especially going down, but it wasn't really possible.

The wildflowers were pretty.  And if you look on the path ahead of Tucker are two goats.  We weren't sure if they were the same ones, but we did follow them on the path for about a quarter mile.  They felt like our hiking buddies and we were less scared of them after following them for a while.

More goats on the snow.  I figure we saw 5-9 depending on which were repeats.

I didn't get pictures of the dear but the amount we saw was definitly in the double digits.  We also saw a type of bird that resembled a chicken that we've never seen before.  By the time we got home the kids went right to bed.  Everyone was exhausted and it was a great day!