Olympic's Hurricane Ridge Road Closed thru Weekend

The national park service (NPS) at Olympic National Park announced the Hurricane Ridge road will remain closed at least thru the weekend. Last week's record storms damaged the road bed. Undercutting and erosion continue to remove more of the road making passage extremely dangerous for the visiting public and park personnel.

Other park roads such as the Sol Duc, the Hoh, the Queets, Quinault Valley, the South Shore Quinault, the Graves , the North Fork and the Staircase roads are also damaged.

Contact the NPS at 360-565-3131 for recorded information on road and weather conditions.

Storms hit Olympic Hard

The winter storms that ripped thru Washington state on December 3rd hit Olympic National Park particular hard. The National Park Service reports that several roads have been washed out and will remain closed for the time being. Images of the storm damage can be found here.

For road information, call the park’s recorded road and weather information line at 360-565-3131 or go to www.nps.gov/olym.

Winter Storms Rip through Northwest: Parks hit again.

Like last year, the winter of 2007 has produced major storms. Rain, wind and flood damage is wide spread across Washington State. Damage to infrastructure and communities has led to a state of emergency.

Once again public lands are taking a beating. With the storm likely to continue through most of the week, land management damage reports are just coming in. Olympic National Park reports park crews are cutting their way through numerous downed trees, in an attempt to access park entrance roads, make damage assessments and begin repairs.

Over the last 48 hours, the Hoh Visitor Center has received more than 14 inches of rain. Meanwhile, the Elwha river reached record heights yesterday rising 14 feet in 24 hours. Rock slides, mudflows, downed trees and power poles are spread throughout the park.

The coalition will post more information on these storms as its made available.