<< Hoh Rain Forest - Part 2

06/01/17 - Hoh Rain Forest - Part 1

It's a fairly long ride out to the Hoh Rain Forest, nearly two hours from Port Angeles, but we figured we should get out to the West End as often as we can before the road repairs on 101 along Lake Crescent make it an even longer journey. We hadn't been out to the Hoh in a while, so we had nearly forgotten just how beautiful it is. Even the Upper Hoh Road is beautiful, and it gets even more beautiful as one approaches the visitor center.

We took the main Hoh River Trail. It's a gentle walk with just a slight incline that eventually takes one up to the Blue Glacier. The predominant color is green. This is lush rain forest. The trees are adorned with ferns and vines, and the forest floor is covered with mosses and ground cover. It is easy to lose perspective and not realize just how big some of the trees are. So many of them are giants.

Most of the trail is inland, but it follows the river for a while. It's worth heading up the trail, if only for a half hour or so to get a good close look at the river. It is that milky blue of glacial meltwater. Then the trail heads inland again and passes over a pretty waterfall. It's just a side stream feeding the Hoh, but it cascades down the valley wall.

One of the elk visible from the road to the visitor center

The green forest floor

Some of the trail

One of the big trees

Twisty trees

A bit of the Hoh River

Another look at the river and the mountains upstream

A bit of the waterfall and rapids

More of that side stream

The waterfall up above

And the waterfall below

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