Olympic National Park - Part 2 of 3

The last post left off using Kalaloch Beach as a base camp for going to other places in the Park. And I wrote about going to Ruby Beach. We went to one more place while camping at Kalaloch. The Hoh Rain Forest looked like a great place to visit. Donning our rain gear we headed for Hoh.

It took about an hour to get there. Many things in this national park take travel time to see. The place is so big. There were no huge crowds when we arrived at a place, maybe due to the time of year, or maybe because the Park is huge. We met people from all over the country; comparing notes, travel plans, sites seen made for many interesting conversations.

On the way there, you pass by the Hoh River. Today there was a rain storm brewing-no surprise there-it is the Rain Forest after all. We stopped for a picture.

I love the dramatic sky

The forest center at Hoh was informative. They had a weather forecast for the week-rain every day except for one. They also had trails that went to specific places. We decided to do the Hall of Mosses and part of the Hoh River Trail up to Mineral Creek Falls. I had read about the Hall of Mosses, so I wanted to see that one. The trail to the Falls was one of the shorter hikes, 2.7 miles round trip. We also wanted to check out the campground seeing that we needed to find a place to stay for the last few days of our trip.

The Hall of Mosses did not disappoint. Did you know that moss can live up to 7 years? I learned that at the forest center. The trail was short, only .8 mile and it wasn't crowded. The lack of crowds gave us opportunities to get pictures without a bunch of unknown people in them.

 

Mr UAW looking small in the midst of all the moss covered trees

This arch way and the previous setting you can find on google-popular spots in the Park. 

The trail to Mineral Falls was the best part of the hike. Usually I look forward to the object at the end of the hike as the pinnacle of a hike. Not so in this case. The falls were hidden behind many trees and bushes. Altho you could hike up to the top portion of the falls it did not help. Maybe it was because we were there at the end of the summer season and the water flow was not as great. More water coming down might have helped to make this more spectacular. That being said it was still a beautiful hike. Most of the trail followed the Hoh River. While on this hike we heard Elk bugling in the distance.

Bridge at the bottom of the falls

Fall color starting 

I'm sitting at the base of the farthest tree. There's still a lot of moss on this hike. 

We checked out the campground at Hoh. It is a first come, first serve campground and it was not crowded. We decided not to try to come back to this campground. Many of the sites were out in the open and small for our tent. We had other places to try.

On the way back to Kalaloch we passed by this spot again and were lucky to catch a rainbow! 

Rainbow

Back at Kalaloch there was no rain. Good for us because the next day we had to pack up and move to Sol Duc where we had reservations for 2 nights. 

Next day we set up our tent early in the day. We heard that it was going to rain the next day so we wanted to get our major hike in on this day. 

New camp spot 

The only thing to worry about was the deer getting into things, brave little guys. 

When we were at the Hoh Rain Forest center I learned a bit about the mushrooms in the area. And I found this one at our camp in Sol Duc. It's called the Sickener mushroom. As it's name implies, it will make you sick if you eat it but apparently will not kill you. In any case I always stay away from picking or eating any mushrooms that I find in the forest. Interesting that squirrels can eat this with no problems!

sickener mushroom 

The major site we wanted to see was Sol Duc Falls. This waterfall did not disappoint. It was beautiful and I suppose it would be even grander if the flow was greater. This waterfall is wonderful no matter the time of year. I thought it was interesting the way they made the trail to view this waterfall. It was unique. 

The river on the other side of the falls 

This day was Mr UAW's birthday so we decided to go out to dinner instead of eating our backpacking food. Sol Duc has Mineral Hot Springs and a restaurant. On this day we went to the restaurant and had elk burgers. Happy birthday! 

We had more adventures using Sol Duc as a base camp for exploring other areas of the Park. More on that in the next post.