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Port Angeles, Washington 2016

Hike up obstruction point to maiden peak - part 5

Our Crazy Post Retirement Wanderings Hiking and Triking


Hike up obstruction point to maiden peak - part 5

The Obstruction point trail has some of the most impressive views in the Olympic mountains, which may not seem like much considering the fact that there are so many beautiful panoramas all over this mountain range.

Still, considering how easy it is to do this hike, it is so worth it to hike this trail. When I hiked this trail, I was suffering severe anemia, and it was harder for me to breathe than normal.

So although the trail is about 6 miles round trip (to where I turned around), and only about 1,200 feet elevation gain. Because the trail follows a ridge, the views are spectacular.(see pictures)

It's fortunate that the elevation was under 7,000 feet, with the breathing issues I had with my anemic condition.

From the visitor center, one drives on a bit of a nerve-wracking forest road for about 8 miles to the trailhead at obstruction point.

Obstruction point is so named because apparently they (forest service) planned to construct a road, but decided that the large stone structure just past the trailhead was an obstruction to building the road.

I don't get it personally, because lots of roads are built into a ledge blasted into the side of a mountain. But apparently the construction folks that were on the construction crew were demotivated at the prospect of doing that sort of thing. Go figure.

The day that I decided to take on this hike, it was partly cloudy, and nice and cool. At about 6,500 feet, it got so cold that I had to put on my wind breaker on top of my sweathshirt between the breeze wind chill, and the clouds moving over the ridge later in the afternoon.

There were lots of interesting views up and down the trail.

Because the ridge is a wide one, there's no worries if someone has a fear of "cliffy" heights, since it's like walking on a large wide hill.

There was no snow on the mountain, in part because I was hiking in the early fall/late summer, when it hadn't become cold enough to start snowing yet, and also because it was not high enough elevation to where the snow from the last season was still in place, as is the case on a few of the taller mountain tops in the Olympics(see photographs).

It was a good hike, and the views were really better than I had hoped. I think if a person was to follow the crest trail further on east, that there are more good views, but I didn't have time or energy to find out. Some other time maybe. But it was some good exercise and a good day to be alive. It is a great trail.

If you go on this trail, take a few minutes and visit the visitor center, where the views are really also quite spectacular, and well worth the time to take some pictures.

Also, inside the visitor center there are lots of nice displays which are also worth the time to view and take some pictures, and you can drive right up to the visitor center and park.

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