Mount Townsend — Saturday, Aug. 21, 1999

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

The views and the flowers are outstanding. We arrived Saturday afternoon under grey skies. By the time we reached Windy Camp it was dark, foggy and downright depressing. The next morning was glorious. I got up well before sunrise and when I saw what a beautiful clear day was in store I got so excited that I skipped breakfast grabbed my dog Umbo and flew up the mountain to greet the rising sun. I was the only soul on the mountain and the scene was truly splendid. You can see almost all of western Washington from Mt St. Helens to Baker and way up into Canada. You also get a great up close view of the western Olympic peaks. Port Angeles, Victoria, Seattle, and Tacoma are all clearly displayed. The flowers are also making a tremendous showing. I went back to camp, ate breakfast, grabbed my wife and went right back up for an encore performance. Only one guy up there at 9:30 am. As we were coming back down we were greeted by throngs of day hikers who probably reached the trailhead between 10:00am and 1:00pm. By then it was pretty hot and the hikers looked uncomfortable. I didn't realize that there is an upper and a lower trailhead. The upper trailhead shaves off 1.2 mi each way. The unmarked turnoff for the upper trailhead is about another 2 mi down rd 27 from the marked lower trailhead. It has a sign indicating it's an unmaintained service road but nothing about Mt Townsend. Regular passenger cars can apparently make it.