ALRIGHTY! The world is a crazy dumpster fire due to the corona virus outbreak, so I'm magically transporting myself to some better, more fun days via blogging. First up is this magical winter day on Hurricane Ridge with these amazing humans, Kim & Hunter!! They'd never been to Hurricane Ridge, and they were stoked to see some mountain scenery for their engagement session. However, the day we met up with them, the Olympics were completely shrouded in a giant, huge rain system that sat squarely on top of the peaks, dumping absolute buckets of rain into the lowlands. So we talked about some different options to go to instead, but Kim & Hunter, bad-asses that they are, decided that even in pretty gross weather, they still wanted to see Hurricane Ridge. I was 100% down, because while Hurricane Ridge is one of my very favorite places, but we hadn't shot a session there yet, absurdly enough. So we all piled into our subaru, threw some snow supplies in the back (always come prepared!) and headed up the mountain.
And let me just say, the Olympics favor the brave. Because once we got our way halfway up to the ridge, the gross rain turned into fluffy snow flurries. Which was gorgeous, and the perfect compliment to their December session. They had their favorite Pendleton blanket (which Hunter used in his proposal!) to keep them warm while we wandered around the snowy, winter wonderland.
After a bit of masterful snow driving from Devon (thank you babe), we got all the way to the top of the ridge. The mountains were barely visible in the haze of snow, and after some flomping around in the snow & a couple of snowball fights, we were ready to call it a day. We hadn't seen much of the mountains, but I was pretty happy with everything I'd captured so far, and given the state of the weather, I didn't have high hopes of the clouds clearing before sun-down (silly Laura). We made plans to head into the visitor center for some hot chocolate before heading back down the mountain.
And here's where things got fun. After we grabbed some much needed steaming hot chocolate, the rangers came into the visitor's center to tell us that the road down the mountain was closed! They were clearing the winding, mountain road with snow plows and removing a vehicle that had spun out (always have your tire chains, people!) so we were stuck for the next hour or so. I felt bad, and a little nervous. But we hung out a table, chatted for a bit, finished our hot chocolates, and the 45 minutes or so passed pretty quickly. After the rangers came back in and told everyone they could head home, we left the visitor center to the most INSANELY GORGEOUS sunset I have ever f*cking seen. The clouds lifted, the world's most perfect golden sun rays were pouring through the Olympics. I literally screeched like a pterodactyl when I saw it, it was so incredibly beautiful.
So obviously I grabbed Kim & Hunter and made them do a few more portraits and we all admired the insanely cool view and said a little inward thank you to the mountains, who had treated us so well that day. If the road hadn't closed, we would have completely missed such a spectacular sight! It was a wonderful reminder to be patient and slow down, because I'm always going at top speed, but I'm slowly learning that nature rewards those with a little grit and a little patience.
Before we packed up for the day, Hunter asked if we wanted a photo of us with this insanely gorgeous sunset in the background and we couldn't refuse. So here's a bonus photo of Devon and I! We are exactly as dorky and awkward as we look.
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