Audio guides enrich experience of visiting Hurricane Ridge, national parks

OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — I've driven to Hurricane Ridge before, but never like this, never with traveling companions of this caliber: an anthropologist, a naturalist and poet, a couple of park rangers and two Native American storytellers.

No, they're not stuffed into my Honda hatchback, but like wishes in a genie bottle, they are contained — digitized, in this case, on a compact disc. "Road to Hurricane Ridge" is one of five Northwest audio driving guides made by CarTours, a nonprofit administered by the National Heritage Foundation. Meticulously researched, CarTours are documentaries for the ear.

Sixty-year-old Seattle resident Peter Lewis, a sound engineer active in the West Coast recording industry for more than 40 years, started CarTours with specific goals: to preserve oral histories and protect wilderness. "The idea is to inspire environmental and cultural stewardship," Lewis says, "and we do that by allowing listeners to 'see' things not evident in the landscape — the history, geology and cultural legacy of the land."

The CarTours guide is geared to start just past the Hurricane Ridge gateway to the national park, where visitors pay $10 per vehicle to enter. I press "play" and hear Lewis — in modulated tones — introduce a string of experts. Olympic National Park's chief of resource education, Michael Smithson, describes the complexity of Olympic forests, and I look up at the dense wall of evergreens looming overhead. The music shifts dramatically, and I learn that ice sheets covered this area 20 times in the past to a height of 3,500 feet, carving out valleys. But the mountains originate in the sea, which explains the "pillow rock" now coming into view — its characteristic lumpiness caused by lava pushing up through the ocean floor, colliding with chilly water.

Naturalist and poet Tim McNulty explains how the arrival of red cedar ushered in the West Coast Indian culture, and that the region — once isolated by ice — is a biological island: Some plants and animals here are found only in Olympic National Park.

When the scenery suddenly changes, Lewis calls my attention to the trees. Higher elevation means fewer of them, and they grow narrow to withstand winter's wind and snow.

"It's not called Hurricane Ridge for nothing," Park Ranger Janice Burger says from my car's speakers. Winter storms bring 75-mph winds and whiteouts. Because weather changes rapidly up here, she advises being prepared for cool temperatures and clouds, good for close-in observing and wildlife sightings

At the top, Park Ranger Matt Graves (the audio version) recommends a 1.6-mile hike up Hurricane Hill to see what he describes as "Sound-of-Music-Maria-on-the-mountain views." Hoisting my day pack, I set out in the sun, thinking about the growing-season here. Ranger Burger says it's painfully short — no more than two or three months. If you step off-trail and squash plants, it could take a century for them to fully recover.

And yet improvised trails are clearly etched in the hills. There's Darwinian justice at work here. Some trampled plants will emerge again, and where will those careless hikers be? Long gone.

Surrounded by blue mountains and broad meadows clinging to late-summer flowers, I inhale deeply. This air is nothing like what we've got in the city: sweet, though not cloying, and crisp from wind glancing off glaciers. My lungs feel satisfied, as though I've finally caught my breath.

After a series of gentle but steady switchbacks, I look forward to grand vistas but up top a massive cloudbank obliterates the view. An illustrated sign shows what I could have seen: Port Angeles, Victoria, Vancouver's Mount Garibaldi, San Juan Islands, Mount Baker. Somehow I'm not that disappointed, recalling Ranger Burger's alternative: Look closer.

Mist puffs through trees, blotting them out one by one. Clouds billow up the sides of mountains then boil over the top in smoky swirls.

Time to head back before I am likewise cocooned.

THE SEATTLE TIMES

On the drive down, I play the second part of the audio tour and Elwha elder Ben Charles enthralls with a story about Thunderbird and killer whale. Their ultimate contest of strength explains how the Columbia River came to be, why the Olympics look the way they do and the reason humility should be cultivated.

Quileute storyteller Chris Morganroth also tells tales, starting each one the way his grandmother once told stories to him. "A long time ago," he begins, "as long as it takes 15 cedar trees to grow ... "

At a lookout, I pull over and realize the view is vaguely familiar from some previous trip but this time is different. I've had the experience Lewis wanted me to have, to care about the place because I know more about it. I've glimpsed the awesome history locked in rock. Now, with the clouds burning off, I can see a long way — mountains, valleys, right over the head of Port Angeles then on across the water. I can see many miles, through eons of time — as far back, I imagine, as 15 cedar trees, growing.

If you go

In addition to "Road to Hurricane Ridge," CarTours also produces these CDs and tapes for $11-$15 each: "Mount Rainier, The Road to Paradise," "Lewis and Clark, Trail of Discovery Series," "Mount St. Helens: Valley of the Volcano," and "The North Cascades Highway."

Hear excerpts on the Web: www.cartours.org. For more information, see the Web site or call 206-938-2347.

Another source for audio driving guides is the Washington State Arts Commission Heritage Tour series: "Leavenworth to Maryhill," "Richland to Clarkston," "Seattle to Vancouver, Wash.," and "Olympic Peninsula Loop." A new tour, "Seattle to Blaine," is due soon, and next year, "Seattle to Spokane." These are narrated audio guides with accompanying books focusing on traditional cultures. For now, all audio guides are on cassette, and only "Seattle to Vancouver, Wash." is available on cassette or CD, but all will be on tape or disc in the near future. $12-$19. Order online at www.washingtonfolkarts.com or call 360-586-2856.

Copyright © The Seattle Times Company

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