Black Tail Eye To Eye

Start at Hurricane Ridge visitor center. Hike out about 3 miles on the Klahhane Ridge trail towards Mount Angeles. Watch for deer, marmot, and mountain goats (although I didn't see any goats this trip).

This was my first time visiting Hurricane Ridge. My wife and I wanted to hike some of the trails around the area and take in some of the fantastic scenery. We walked about 10 yards from our vehicle, the clouds rolled in, and it started to poor. We both changed into our rain gear determined to get a hike in on our first full day. Thinking that the camera would probably stay in the bag, I almost left it. It was very foggy which limited any distance if sight. It turned out (due to the rain probably) the trail was quite empty of other people, but not empty of other animals. We lost track after 18 deer and there were quite a few marmots running around on the hillside. The rain did slow but it never really quit. When this exceptional buck deer walked out I had to get the camera out. Using my rain hat as a shield over the camera (sacrificing my head to the rain for a time, to my wife's amusement) I managed to crawl within 70 yards or so and get a few shots. The lens still had water drops on it even when using the hat as a shield. I carefully removed the daylight filter keeping the camera angled down which allowed this shot. This was the only day it rained while we were there. We did not see anywhere near as many animals once the weather cleared, but the rest of the mountain scenery was spectacular.