Hoh Rainforest

Prior to this trip, I must admit that I didn’t know there was a rain forest in the US. Sure enough, right on the northwestern tip of the lower 48, the area receives nearly 140” of annual rainfall. 

Olympic national park is very diverse; mountains, rainforest, coastal beaches, a little bit of everything. We started the day by visiting the ER. Turns out the rib is just bruised and not broken but she has been in pain so we thought best to get it checked out. After some pain meds, she is moving slow but doing much better. While she was visiting the doctor I went to get groceries since they wouldn’t allow me in. This being the case even though after we entered the hospital and talked to the unmasked receptionist who made us go across the street to a “hut” to have our temperature taken by a lady in full E.T. Biohazard suit and walk back to the hospital. Anyway, I don’t think we have COVID and neither did that lady but don’t try to help someone at the ER. 

Anyway… after a quick lunch we headed to the Hoh rainforest. When we got there we were stuck in a line of cars waiting to get in. The sign said 90 minutes but it took closer to half that. We took the Hall of Mosses trail. Very interesting to see a non tropical rainforest. Trees as tall as 300 feet, moss growing on everything, and lucky for us summer they don’t get much rain, so it really was more like a big forest. 

After the rainforest we went to kalaloch beach and looked at the tree of life. We had a picnic snack/supper of smoked oysters, tilamook cheese, crackers cherries we picked in Oregon and a drink. 

Beach 4 to see some tide pools. 

And finally ruby beach for the sunset. 

We ended the night with some hotdogs over a campfire and a cold beer. Everyone else may have had hot chocolate. I’m not sure what day it is, so we are officially on vacation.