Sunrise Point Trail is located within Olympic National Park in Washington State. It is quite a short trail even starting from the parking lot. The total round trip distance is less than 2 miles. However, since it is an easy trail and it is located at Hurricane Ridge, which is the must visit place at Olympic National Park, the trail is extremely crowded.
We got to Hurricane Ridge around 11AM in the morning and we were very lucky to get a parking space right away. As we hiked up the trail, 2 deers came out of the trees to greet us. The deers were enjoying the grass very much. We could tell that one was female and the other was male because it had antlers. The male deer crossed the trail to get to the other side, but the female deer was a bit scared to cross due to the crowd of people watching here. She eventually went around people and hopped over to join with the male.
There was not much elevation gain on Sunrise Point Trail. The initial part of the trail from parking lot was well paved and very easy to walk on. Then the dirt trail was very well maintained to help people to climb along with the elevation gain. On the last part of the trail, it was on the ridge along the road where we drove from.
The view at the top had panoramic view around Olympic National Park. We could see Mount Olympic on the South side. On the North side, we could not see much due to the clouds, but on the clear days we would be able to see as far as Vancouver Island across the sea.
Along the hiking trail, one thing to keep in mind was to keep yourself on the trail and not to step into the meadow. There were signs every where to tell people to stay on the trail, but we still saw several people wondering off the trail just to take a photo.
Overall, the trail itself was good, but quite short. We were expecting to experience a better trail with better view. Given that it took a long drive of 17 miles from park entrance just to get here, we were a bit disappointed with what the trial offered at the top. However this easy trail is very suitable for young kids and senior people since it did not have much elevation gain and the trail was well maintained.
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