Going West: July 19 Part II (Hoh Rainforest)

Rialto Beach was just the start of our day.  Returning to Mora Campground, we quickly packed up, drove into Forks, and headed south on hwy 101.  Our destination was the Kalaloch Campground about an hour away, but a slight detour east to see the Hoh Rainforest would break the trip into two 40 minute legs. 

The Hoh is a temperate rainforest area and, while not hot and muggy like the “rainforest” name suggests, it gets almost 200 inches of rain each year.  The area is beautifully green and makes for great small walks. 

Driving into the Hoh is striking because most of the area between the national park and the ocean is used for logging and is in various stages of harvest and growth.

DSC05112

Signs like this line the peninsula highways.  Some are obviously placed by the park and others by logging companies.  We even saw one explaining a large expanse of bare mountainside as victim to hurricane-force winds that necessitated an unplanned harvest. 

 

It doesn’t make for a pretty landscape, but turning back into the park toward the rainforest the trees suddenly triple in size, everything feels darker, and it is quieter. 

 

IMG_1837

The moss takes over a phone booth (there’s no actual phone – who needs a phone booth anymore?)

 

IMG_1839

I’d been driving the girls nuts for days taking pictures of pretty moss, so we knew immediately which trail we’d be taking

 

IMG_2361

 

IMG_2347

In a grove of maples (they looked nothing like any maple tree I’d ever seen)

 

panoHoh

A better look at the maples

DSC05076

We noticed fallen branches became part of the mossy groundcover

 

DSC05087

So many colors of green!

 

DSC05092

Moss AND fungi  –  can you beat that?

 

DSC05106

The tree Julia is leaning on fell along the path and had to be cut in several places to make the trail accessible.  Its fallen trunk runs for more than 200 feet along the trail!

 

IMG_2329

More pretty moss (there are more than 250 species of moss in the park!)

 

panoHohNurseTree

The girls sitting on a ”nurse log” – a tree that fell and provided the perfect environment or the two larger trees to grow. 

 

IMG_2365

I love it, but I can’t decide if it’s beautiful, creepy, or both

 

DSC05089

When you pressed the wood on this fallen log, it was spongy and oozed water

 

IMG_2384

A stream along the path:  Moss hangs overhead and plants grow beneath the water.  We overheard a ranger tell someone silver salmon are often seen here, but we didn’t see any.

 

DSC05073

From the ground, it’s a long, long way up

 

IMG_2383

Julia liked the bark flecks on this log, so she tried her hand at some up-close photography

 

IMG_2362

The end of the walk

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • RSS

Leave a Reply