2/22/14 The second day, I headed towards the Pacific coast on the Olympic pennisula and then down to the Hoh Rain Forest, one of the largest temporate rain forests in North America. An unexpected snow storm while hiking the rain forest made for a great experience.
1 On the second day, I woke up to a snow covered car and drove about an hour from Forks down to the Hoh Rain Forest. Given that I was in a small rental car, with no chains, and zero familiarity of the area, I was a little nervous about the conditions. But it ended-up being a beautiful drive with no traction problems at all.
2 Snow on the Hoh River.
3 Green, moss, and water everywhere. The Hoh Rain Forest gets 140-170 inches of rain a year, and even more water from heavy condensation. After a record dry year in SoCal, the wetness here was a very welcome change.
4 I started out with the 0.8 mile Hall of Mosses trail near the Visitor Center.
5 There are some great trees in this area.
6 These are called "nurse logs". A young tree grows on top of a fallen tree, feeding off its nutrients. Eventually, the fallen tree disintegrates and the young trees look like they grew on stilts.
7 More interesting, moss covered trees.
8 On to the Hoh River Trail towards the Olympus Guard Station.
9 The first couple miles of the trail are very popular and too well groomed for my taste. But amazing scenery nonetheless.
10 Some large Sitka Spruce treefall on the trail. The snow got pretty heavy at times.
11 More big, mossy trees.
12 Great contrasts of rain forest and snowy river scenery.
13 The farther down the trail, the better the single track gets.
14 Without the sun being out, the camera just doesn't capture how bright these greens really are. And it's still winter. I can only imagine how green everything must be in the Spring!
15 Great trail. Mick Dodge lives out in the rain forest somewhere around here. I was really hoping to find him!
16 A perfect stripe of snow falling through an opening in the tree canopy above.
17 One of the waterfalls along the trail falling into a series of cascades.
18 The cascades draining into the Hoh River below.
19 A cool bridge over the creek.
20 A came across a little herd of Elk. There were probably 7 or 8 of them, and I was able to get pretty close.
21 Evidently, it's against the law to get within 100ft of Elk in the National Park for safety reasons, but they were pretty mellow.
22 Especially this guy (or gal), just staring at me.
23 Areas without the tree canopy are covered in snow and look like a winter wonderland.
24 Moss, creek, ferns, trees. Awesome landscape.
25 A little shelter near the Happy Four backpacking campsite.
26 The snow is getting pretty thick in places. I'm glad I have the heavy tread of my Salomon Fellraisers.
27 It was rather surreal seeing the look of tropical green rain forest alternating with white flocked forest trees.
28 Completely snow covered in places. The trail was starting to get hard to follow in spots, the snow was getting heavier, and it was really cold. Thanks to the snow, I had only seen one human so far. I hit my turnaround point around 7 miles in and started to head back.
29 Looks like something out of Lord of the Rings. I found several cool spots on the way back that I hadn't noticed on the way in.
30 More green tree scenery.
31 Snowy fog above the Hoh River.
32 Cascades along the trail.
33 The snow stopped, making for a clearer view through the trees of one of the waterfalls along the trail. Unfortunately, it also meant seeing a few more humans on the way back.
34 Another view of the first waterfall and cascades.
35 I love this spot.
36 The trail running right alongside the river.
37 Almost back to the trailhead.
38 After leaving Hoh Rain Forest, I got back on the 101 and headed out to the coast. There are a couple great beach lookout spots near the Kalaloch Ranger Station.
39 It was raining pretty hard at this point, but I took the short trail down to the water. Here looking South down the Pacific coast.
40 The view North.
41 Another beach spot further down the coast. Here looking North again.
42 The view South from the same spot.
43 The forest grows almost right down to the water in this area. These are actually tumors that grow on the trees here.
44 After a couple hour drive from the Hoh Rain Forest, I reached my next destination at Lake Quinault just as the sun went down.