The Hoh Rainforest is roughly in the middle of the Olympic Peninsula. But you can really only get to it from the Pacific coast or from the south. So it was naturally our next stop after spending some time in La Push.
This place receives over 12 feet of rain per year and the health of the forest really shows.
The rainforest itself is not the biggest hiking destination which was a bit disappointing to me. You have a thru trail there that is roughly 35 miles long and not much else. So the only big day we were able to do was 4 or 5 miles on that thru trail.
The forest itself was pretty amazing but it didn’t seem much different than the other rainforests we had seen on the other side of the mountains in Fairholme. You hear so much about the Hoh Rainforest and you are expecting something out of this world. But the reason you hear so much about it is that it’s just more well-known than the other parts of the park.
The Hall of Mosses, which was a really short hike in the area, was fairly special. There was a small creek that ran through it and the underwater plant life was mesmerizing to watch.
You can walk a quarter mile up the hill and it brings you into the oldest part of the forest. Here there were some beautiful maple trees draped all over with moss and lichen. It’s what I pictured the rainforest would look like. Felt like we were in a mystical world at that point. Like Lord Of The Rings or something.
We camped there that night. Not in the rainforest but in an open clearing. I had high expectations of this place but I was a bit disappointed again. I guess coming in with high expectations isn’t always a good thing. Had a solid night with a campfire and everything. The stars were really amazing. We hadn’t had many nights with great stars in Washington because of all the forest fires.
The next day we moved about 45 minutes down the coast (you only really need a day in the forest) to Ruby Beach. Real similar to Rialto and Second Beach. Bunch of really big rocks on the beach. We did a meditation on the beach with each other and that was really enjoyable.
From here on out we were officially on the road back to Colorado. We picked up a hotel for the night in Longview Washington. Right near the border with Oregon.