Olympic National Park-Hoh Rain Forest.............

We enjoyed our last few days on the Columbia River...watching the "traffic" and enjoying the sunsets in between working on projects in the air-conditioned motorcoach! Its been pretty hot in the Pacific Northwest, with record setting temperatures. Yippee!! Truth be told though, there was a really great breeze off that Columbia River most of the time, so the temperature was about 10 degrees cooler than surrounding areas. You can see how choppy the water is.

another big ship heading inland

beautiful sunset

enjoying the sunset from a bench on the beach

the sky looks like its on fire

more water traffic! Who knew? Its not just boats and ships!

our last sunset before moving on....glorious, huh?

Moving up to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, the campground we chose was a bit different than the ones we've had lately, with water views. This campground is on the small side, and has wonderful basics-perfect for us. When we were setting up, we had a neighbor come visit us and welcome us to the neighborhood! (Jess....she's looking for you)! The campground is in an ideal location for exploring the western side of Olympic National Park and northwest Washington. 

howdy y'all

having a nice barbecue dinner

burgers tonight

Olympic National Park is very large (huge actually!), and has a few different ecosytems within its boundaries, ranging from coastline, temperate rain forest, alpine and subalpine environments. For more information on Glacier National Park, click here. We began our exploration of Olympic National Park at Hoh Rain Forest, not too far from our campground. It was early when we drove into the park, and we were treated to a "new to us" lawn cutting device. Hahah. So that's how they do it!

Hoh River

clearing the brush-pretty fancy

beautiful ride into the park

another view of the Hoh River (a glacial melt river from Mount Olympus)

After driving through a canopy of old growth forest along the Hoh River, we entered the National Park Visitor Center area. The Visitor Center is being built, so the poor rangers had to work under a tent, like the ones at craft shows. Oh boy! The Visitor's Center looks like it will be nice when its completed, hopefully very soon. So, we had a chat with one of the rangers, and learned that basically there were 2 short trails, and one 17 mile trail. So, we started with the short trails. 

beautiful...glacial silt gives the river that color

trees are huge here!

The first trail was the Hall of Mosses Trail, a loop of 0.9 miles in an otherworldly green environment. It was so cool! The moss hung on trees and was just everywhere. I don't know how many shades of green we saw, really!! There were a lot of people on the trail and everyone seemed to be in awe, including us.

the start of all the trails is here

beginning the "Hall of Mosses" trail-check out that water!

The water is clear, but the moss in it is soooo green! And the sand is gray glacial silt.

lovely trail

lots of the trees are wild looking

The trees were huge in this forest, and most grew on nurse logs so the roots were mangled and above ground. So cool. Everything is supersized here. The ferns were as big as bushes. You would think there would be a lot of snakes, but we only saw one little garter snake the entire day, and it wiggled off the trail and out of sight really quickly.

Wow!

just so tall

the moss is everywhere

it makes the place look magical

very cool

so much moss!

so healthy looking too (moss takes nutrients from water and minerals in the air, not from the plant it is on)

cool place!

trees growing on nurse trees

lots of growth on everything

Being that this trail is rather easy (not accessible though....lots of roots and uneven trail!), there were lots and lots of other visitors walking along too. We all had cameras out, lost in this magical place, and it was pretty quiet. I think everyone was in awe! It was a setting suitable for fairytales and fantasy stories.

archway compliments of mother nature

such lush growth

lots of photographers here

really tall mossy trees

so lush!

dead trees are used for nutrients and more growth

am I still on earth?

moss hangs off everything

pretty wild!

even the ferns are huge here

Tom looks little compared to some of the growth in the forest

check this out

check this out too!

lots of narly roots

so cool

really enjoying this trail

this is stuff of fairy tales and childhood fantasy books

It was a fun and interesting loop trail that took quite a bit of time due to gawking and photography! Really something to see.

The other short trail was the Spruce Nature Trail, a 1.2 mile loop that meandered through the old growth forest, at times along the Hoh River. This trail was not nearly as crowded, but had a good amount of other hikers exploring the beauty of the rain forest. The trees were huge!

ready Susie?

jumbo trees

trying to show the scale using Tom

the nurse tree was probably a huge spruce that has long since decomposed

I'm really feeling short

enjoying the trail

tree fungus...can even see the moisture on that

so lush

so much biomass

the trail goes a bit along the Hoh River...nice!

love the color of the glacial rivers

such a pristine place

a look at part of the trail

its great that most of the trail is shaded too

tree growing on a nurse log-that's going to be quite a space when the log decomposes and the tree grows bigger!

another cool one

the ferns are huge

yes...they are!

fern growing out of a tree

several trees together .... looks like one tree

another architectural structure compliments of mother nature

lots of growth

moss is covering everything

check the size of these clover petals...supersized!

lots of trees in a row growing on the same nurse "tree" that had fallen (I'm too short to get the full picture)

water features are abundant too

checking the map?

lush environment with the babbling water features....refreshing!

so cool

After a morning of easy hiking, we stopped for a picnic lunch and to regroup ourselves. We had all afternoon, and we were contemplating doing SOME of the Hoh River Trail (which was 17.3 miles one way....hahahah). Tom was using his apps to figure out where we were going, and it conveniently marked the spot with an "X". Ugh! We are spoiled with cell and internet service, being from a crowded area in the east. Anyway, off we went. We really just wanted to walk, and hoped to walk to a waterfall, 3 miles away or so, and then turn around. As usual, I was too HOT, even with the cooling kerchief and the zip-off pants into shorts! It was 84 in the shade, and a lot of the trail was in the sun and just killed me. Even Tom was hot, which is amazing in and of itself! So, after about 2 miles hiking in, we turned around to head back to the Visitor Center. 

that should help, right? hahha

maybe we can go to Tom Creek?

starting on the Hoh River Trail

I feel like I'm walking through a story book for children

got that app working now?

Tom dwarfed by a tree

50 shades of gr......eeeeeeen!

speechless

running out of words

the trail is getting fun

woah...that's a big tree

oh...and so is that

fungus on a log

view of the Hoh River again

way less people on this trail!

its a bit steeper too

It was getting just too hot for us to enjoy the hike, so we turned around and headed back. About a mile and a half from the Visitor Center, we were walking along and enjoying the shade when Tom just stopped on the trail. (I'm usually the one that does that, so I can catch up with myself on hills-hahah).

its getting pretty hot

heading back...too hot to be enjoyable

you know its hot when Tom takes his hat off and rolls up his sleeves a wee bit! 

what?

stay calm

slowly moving away

she didn't even look at us!

the cub was adorable...

eating some bugs?

still not paying any attention to us (I am using a zoom by the way!)

We were lucky to see a bear and cub, especially one that didn't bother us, but it was still a little bit unnerving. There is no where to go and you canNOT run. Tom got some great pictures, but I am a bit shorter and did not get a good angle when we first saw them. After the mom crossed the path, the cub scampered behind her but went so fast I could not snap a picture. Too bad, because it was adorable. They both were. Of course, like I said, they did not bother us at all. I don't think they even looked at us, and we I was making noise, talking loudly to be sure they knew we were there. Anyway, good thing  we I couldn't take the heat. If we had continued on to the waterfall, we would have missed them. We count ourselves as lucky we were able to see the moma bear and her cub! Very exciting for us!! If you are interested, click here to see Tom's video of our bear encounter!

that was something!

the size of these fallen trees is amazing

fungus and moss and lots of stuff growing here

what's eating the moss? I believe that's a sign of elk in the area

We finished our hike, cooled off a bit, and headed back out of the park to head home. We did stop at a pullout for "Large Spruce Tree", and were surprised to see that it was just a part of the tree. Turns out, the tree snapped after high winds from a storm just a few months ago. It was the largest Sitka Spruce tree in the world. I think it was 500 years old, but don't quote me on that one. All I keep thinking is that must have been some storm to fell a tree of that incredible size. Nature....very powerful!

that was the largest Sitka Spruce and look what happened!

We really enjoyed our day in the rain forest. We were expecting it to be cloudy and wet, so we were really surprised we had a blue sky sunny hot day. It was very foggy when we left the campground. The weather is crazy all over!