Hurricane Ridge reopens Tuesday nearly 2 months after devastating Day Lodge fire
Olympic National Park’s Hurricane Ridge area reopened to visitors Tuesday following a devastating fire in early May.
That fire completely destroyed the 71-year-old Day Lodge on May 7. The area had been closed ever since over concerns surrounding “potentially hazardous debris” among a handful of other safety concerns.
Check out photos from the reopening of Hurricane Ridge this week:
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Starting Tuesday, June 27, the park is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Portable toilets will be available.
You should keep in mind that there are no indoor spaces available if the weather gets bad.
Initially, the National Park Service said that Hurricane Ridge would be closed indefinitely while crews assessed repairs.
Even now that it’s reopened, Park Superintendent Sula Jacobs warns that things will “look different this summer” for visitors to Hurricane Ridge, with daily limits on vehicles and a handful of days where the 17-mile mountain road up to the ridge could close entirely so that debris can be removed.
Limited restroom capacity means that there’s now a limit of 315 vehicles a day allowed at the ridge, with the parking lot capped out at 175 vehicles at any given time. Once the vehicle limit is reached, the road into the area will close for the day.
Over 300,000 people have visited Hurricane Ridge every year since it first opened in the 1950s. Before the early-May fire, the Day Lodge had been closed to visitors since March for renovations.
