Olympic Nat'l Park: first stop Hoh Rainforest

We left Oregon on Thursday, August 4 and arrived at La Push, WA our first stop at the Olymic National Park. Our campsite at Quilette Oceanfront Park was switched by the management to their Lonesome Creek Campground. Mom wasn't happy because the reviews weren't great...it was just a gravel parking lot, no wifi, no cable, no grass. Thank goodness we are self contained...portapotties for bathrooms😱. However, it was oceanfront with a beautiful view right from our window!

And a beach that made for great digging and lots of surfers in wetsuits

Our main reason to come here was the Hoh Rainforest. Pups weren't allowed so I stayed home, Mom will fill you in!

The rainforest gets over 14ft of rain a year so a nice sunny day was a treat. It is one of the largest temperate rainforests in the U.S. The Hoh River valley was formed from a glacier with My Olympus as the highest point. There are 3 different trails, we did all of 2 and part of the 3rd. The first was the Hall of Mosses Trail...think of a fairytale forest with green moss hanging from Sitka Spruces and western hemlock with beds of ferns.

The water was crystal clear...this is a stream with Flora underneath the surface that was a brilliant color

Next we did the Spruce Tree trail where the trail is more open and as such the sun filters through so the Spruce and Douglas firs grow very tall, well over 300ft!

Along the trail we came across this sweet doe, so focused on munching leaves she didn't seem to notice us!

Our final trail went 17mi to Mt Olympus...no we didn't make it anywhere close but we did enjoy the trail and the glacier fed a Hoh River with its milky blue glacier water!

We had a neat view of an Elk across the river..I think he was snoozing!

When we returned to our campsite the marine layer began to move in...

And by morning it was completely fogged over!

From here we head to the northern side of Olympic Nat'l Park!