Hoh Rain Forest, Olympic NP

Thursday: (10/13) Leftover French toast and sausage for breakfast. We took a short hike down to the tide pools before preparing to leave. We took Highway 112 West to Highway 113 to Highway 101 South. Highway 101 circles on both the East and West sides of Olympic national Park. If you're headed North on Highway 101 on either side eventually you will be headed back South and end up where you started. Kind of odd? We stopped in Forks to get gas in the Jeep and have lunch. Lou made onion soup with Parmesan toast.


Then we continued down to a road into the park to the Hoh Rain Forest where we settled in to a campsite.  Nice weather today. When we arrived in the rain forest, it wasn't raining. In fact, it was nice and sunny.


The Hoh River below our camp and an elk relaxing by the river there. We enjoyed some time in the sun sitting by the river. In the evening we enjoyed a campfire.  Lou baked some fish and served it with rice, tomatoes and avocado.
(GPS:47.8576041,-123.93653183)


Friday: (10/14) A dry morning for a change. Not too much in the way of fall colors here yet but this tree was trying hard. We heard from a neighbor here that it was raining and hailing here two days ago but they really got to enjoy a sunny day yesterday. Lou fixed ham, eggs and home fried potatoes for breakfast. We hiked the Hall of Mosses and Spruce Trails. They were nice short trails, each different and interesting.


The Hall Of Mosses makes one want to keep moving else the moss might cover them.


Nice looking trees in along the trail.


Here is a rare picture of the two of us on the trail.


The Spruce Trail wanders between these two logs and under one of them at the end.

For lunch Lou made salmon burgers with honey mustard served with leftover french onion soup. We relaxed in camp most of the afternoon. For dinner Lou made Pork chop suey. We enjoyed a campfire this afternoon and evening thanks to a fellow camper with no need to take their surplus wood home.

Saturday: (10/15) Leftover pancakes and sausage for breakfast.


We hiked out the Hoh River Trail to Mt Don Creek, about 3 miles. Above right I'm resting by the river on a tree that has been undercut by the river.


Foggy trail and a waterfall. There were a couple of nice waterfalls near where Lou turned around. Unfortunately there was no way I could get a good picture of them. This small one was more cooperative. The darned trees get in the way

The trail is a fairly level trail trough the valley and along the river. It's about 17/2 miles out to the glacier. That's a bit too far for us for a day hike considering that's the one way distance. The distance we hiked out gave us a nice view of the area.


Lou turned around at the 3 mile mark and I continued on another hour before returning.

Lunch was trail snacks. Dinner was BBQ ribs with baked potatoes and corn on the cob. The weather today started out COLD. It was 26 degrees at 7am and not 40 degrees yet at 10am. When we started our hike it was nippy. About noon the day turned quite nice and the sun was out all day. We enjoyed a nice campfire in the evening. When we started our hike about 10am, the Visitor Center parking area was almost empty/ When we returned it was full. While we've enjoyed our stay in the campground there were usually only a couple other campers but business really picks up on the weekend. There are maybe a dozen campers tonight.


There are not many flowers to be seen this time of year. Not the same for the mushrooms.


Micky Mouse ear mushrooms?


These are the same type of mushroom but the ones on the right are really trying to replace the flowers.


Mushroom sprouts?