Trip Report
Day Hike - Harry's Ridge
The Olympia Branch CHS students hiked Harrie's Ridge - what a glorious day of mountains, wildlife, and flowers.
Becky Andrade
- Fri, Jun 18, 2021
- Day Hike - Harry's Ridge
- Coldwater Peak, Harry's Ridge & Pumice Plain
- Day Hiking
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Trail dry and easily passable for the most part. There was one short muddy/wet stretch and two short, easily passable snowfields about 2.5 to 3 miles down the trail. But, the snowfields were accompanied by Avalanche Lillies, so it all evened out.
We met at the Johnson Ridge Observatory parking lot at 8:00 a.m. (facilities closed, but there are several port-a-potties in the parking lot) There were probably a dozen cars already there for a day that was forecast to be sunny with a high temperature around 70. The lot was much more full when we returned about 1:00, the trail was busy with outgoing hikers, and a food truck was now in the parking lot and doing a good business.
Wildflowers are stunning - the Bush Penstemon and Harsh Paintbrush are the stars of the show right now with 2 different species of Lupine, Avalanche Lillies, and Strawberries seen in numerous sections. We also saw 2 or 3 Mountain Goats, a few elk, and several ground squirrels.
My GAIA app showed 7.1 miles round trip with 1100 feet of elevation gain, although all the participants agreed that the uphill back to the parking lot never seemed to end on the way back in - especially now that it was warmer and the trail was more crowded.