We got up again at the crack of dawn to make out way to the Hoh Rainforest, which we heard gets very crowded (wait times are as much as three hours to get into the parking lot by early afternoon). We had also been told that early morning the light was beautiful through the trees, and that we would have the best chance of seeing wildlife. All of these things proved to be true, and we stumbled across a huge herd of elk on the entrance road to the park:
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| We finally officially entered the park (we were previously in Olympic National Forest) |
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| We had to stop because the elk were blocking the road. It was a huge herd -- 30 to 40 of them |
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| lots of little calves |
When we pulled into the parking lot by the Hoh Visitor Center, we were the only car there (there was a separate lot for overnight backpackers that was pretty full). The center was not open yet, but we went and read the signs outside, which included trail maps and wildlife warnings:
We decided to start with the Trail of Mosses, which is some of the oldest growth in the park:
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| The only wildlife we encountered on this trail was banana slugs |
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| More mature slug? |
We saw almost no one on the first trail (there were a few parties coming in as we were leaving, but we saw no one on the actual trail), so we decided to move on to the Spruce Trail, which is newer rainforest growth. We immediately ran into some elk just off the path, including this mother and her two calves. We hurried along past them to the riverside:
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| This is where the light started to get really pretty |
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Spot the Benji
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We finished up the second trail just before 9am, when the Visitor Center would open, so we hung around long enough to check in and get our passports stamped. By this time, we were starving, so we were thrilled to find a little café open down the road a bit. Once we'd eaten, we continued our drive up towards Forks, arriving late morning. We stopped in to the chamber of commerce, to find that the town has gone all-in on Twilight hype:
We got the tide charts for the day and found out that high tide was about 2:30pm, but that the tidal pools could generally be seen for two hours on either side of that. It was nearly noon and we decided to head to Rialto Beach, which was supposed to have a nice hike to "Hole in the Wall" that passed some of the best tidal pools:
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| The driftwood and fallen trees on the beach were gigantic |
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| Lots of neat colored rocks on the beach |
A little ways in we passed a flock of pelicans that were fascinating to watch:
We were looking for tidal pools the whole way, but when we reached them they were obvious:
As we got nearer to Hole in the Wall, there was a different type of tidal pool with colored rock and hermit crabs:
Hole in the Wall was about a mile and a half in, but I was sure I had read there was something a little further down the beach, so we kept walking another little bit until we were sure that was wrong. It did give us a chance to see some of the beach without other people:
Back through the hole, we started the long walk back, although the clouds had cleared so we got to see some of it in sunshine:
About half way back, someone pointed out that there were two bald eagles in the tree we were passing, which was a great way to end the day. From Rialto, we headed back to Forks for dinner and then checked into our cabin and had an early night:
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