National Parks Traveler

On a July 4th weekend, I slowly circled the Hoh Campground, passing just about every one of its 72 sites in search of an empty, unreserved campsite. With the sinking feeling that my campsite would end up somewhere in the adjoining Olympic National Forest, it was stunning to find a vacant site on a turn in the road and separated from the Hoh River by a line of towering trees. The river was unseen, but I could hear it gently gurgling over some large rocks.

An old friend of mine was a multi-trip visitor to Olympic National Park in Washington state and a big fan of the Hoh Rain Forest, so I reached out to her for some advice for first-time visitors.

“If this is the first trip (to Hoh Rain Forest), people should plan to stay more than one day,” said Marisa Mackey, of Tempe, Arizona. She reminisced about her multiple trips into the deep, thick, misty, lush green rain forest far from the bustle of Seattle and Tacoma.

Olympic National Park, westward from Port Angeles, Washington, is the less crowded of the two national parks with rain forests located in the continental United States. The other is Redwoods National Park near Crescent City, California. Olympic has four rain forests with Hoh and Quinault being the most accessible. Queets, in a southwest extension of the park surrounded by state forest lands. Bogachiel Rain Forest, tucked in a valley north of the Hoh Rain Forest is a wilderness area accessible by trail and backpacking.

“It’s definitely a trip that needs to be planned,” she said of the Hoh. “There are few places to stay in this area of (Olympic National Park) without camping.”

The Hoh is just 31 miles (50km) from the famous vampire hamlet of Forks. The town has a couple of small motels, some vacation home rentals, and scattered campgrounds in the area. It’s tough to find a motel room or campsite at the last minute.

The Quinalt Rain Forest nearby offers more expanse to roam and explore the vegetation/Rebecca Latson

“The Hoh Rain Forest is unique,” said Mackay. “Right next to the river, the hanging mosses and ferns are so beautiful. You just don’t have views like this in most national parks, plus, it’s just not that crowded.”

It’s a different kind of view. National parks in the West are known for their expansive views of canyons, mountains, and rock formations. In the Hoh Rain Forest, the views are close to you. It’s a place to reach out and touch.

“There’s nothing like this. It’s a unique ecosystem. At Olympic (National Park), you have this rain forest. There are the mountains at Hurricane Ridge, and there’s a totally amazing shoreline to explore,” said Mackey. “I have not been to a (national) park that has such a diverse collection of (environments). I’ve made multiple trips to the area, and I’ll be back. It’s the kind of place that needs to be seen; it’s so wild and untouched. It’s, well, it’s just a spiritual experience; almost ethereal.”

Mackay was right. There are only five rain forests in the United States: at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, in the Chugach and Tongass national forests in Alaska; the Hoh Rain Forest; Redwoods National Park; and small glens scattered through the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina.

According to the National Geographic Society, rain forests have been around for more than 70 million years, and some of today’s tropical rain forests date back that far. A rain forest occurs when there is high annual rainfall.

More than 140 inches (356cm) of rain falls each year at Hoh, roughly the same as Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park’s tropical rain forest. Redwoods is close, with over 120 annual inches (305cm) of rainfall. In the Carolina forests, rainfall is a mere 70 inches (178cm) a year. The champion rain forest in the United States, also the world’s northernmost, is Chugach National Forest, with 168 inches (427cm) of rain, of which 80 inches (203cm) is snow.

A rain forest is a unique ecosystem with four layers:

• The emergent layer is where individual trees dominate the skyline, popping through the second layer, the canopy, with a thick interconnected layer of branches and foliage blanketing the landscape.
• Below the canopy resides the third layer, the understory, which is a dark, often perfectly still environment of shorter trees with larger leaves to catch the little sunlight streaming through the canopy. The humidity in the understory gives rise to the literary “oppressive feeling” adventurers recount. In the temperate rain forests in the United States, including the Hoh, fruits and berries grow in the understory.
• The fourth layer is the forest floor with little sunlight. Here are found the monstrous ferns and numerous mushrooms growing from the nutrients of decaying fallen leaves.

There are no “do not touch” signs in the Hoh Rain Forest, but definitely requirements to keep feet on the trail.

You may not want to touch what you’re seeing at ground level and its soft forest floor filled with nutrient-rich decay from falling leaves and dying understory plants. New plants, mosses, mushrooms and whole communities live in this fertile duff and on decaying nurse logs, according to the Park Service. Many small mammals burrow into them for shelter. The “never turn over a rock (or log) with your hand,” definitely applies to avoid bites and scratches. Touch, don’t pick up what you see lying there.

Of course, look carefully and you'll likely spot one of the forest's famous banana slugs.

Many times, trees begin life on a nurse log, a fallen tree trunk that slowly rots away, giving purchase and nutrients for new growth with stilt-like root structures. The new trees often stand in a line, which the Park Service website calls a “colonnade.”

Just inches above, lush ferns and mosses give Hoh and its sister rain forests the jungle appearance in the understory. Intermixed are forest brush and bushes. It’s in this layer, if one is quiet, that Roosevelt elk may be spotted grazing on greenery or splashing into the river. Olympic National Park is home to one of the largest wild populations of the species in the United States. There are numerous other mammals moving back and forth underneath the safety of the broad plant leaves and thick mosses.

The rustic visitor center at the rain forest offers daily ranger-led tours in the summer and on weekends in the winter. Included is my favorite, a ranger-led trek into the Hall of Mosses and Spruce Nature trails. Both hikes are easy loops and are about mile-long. During the pandemic, remember to check the bulletin board at the visitor center or the Olympic National Park website for programs and any restrictions or cancellations. The park’s website posts events on the park’s calendar.

One of the great pleasures of visiting national parks is that when sharing stories on social media you’ll often find a nearby neighbor who has also made the trip. Dana Keller of Phoenix, Arizona, piped up when seeing a photo of Hoh Rain Forest on my Facebook page.

“It’s the circle of life right in front of you,” Keller said during a call after discovering she is nearly a neighbor. A native of Washington, Keller’s husband-to-be proposed to her on Ruby Beach in the nearby Pacific Seashore section of Olympic National Park. “It’s just so big and lush, and there’s such a diversity of plants.”

Walking Ruby Beach can require carefully negotiating log jams/Rebecca Latson

Although rain is expected in a rain forest, a clear morning greeted campers for the ranger-led hike through the Hall of Mosses. A group of 20 gathered to walk, learn, and explore the trail of fuzzy growth hanging like thick streamers from the trees in the understory. Hoh Rain Forest is one of those places where an experienced guide leading a hike shows how to find each of the four layers of a rain forest. The ranger runs through the unique characteristics of each layer during the walk.

Keller remembers the size of the trees. On the hike through the Spruce Nature Trail, she recalled a massive spruce felled across the path, creating a tunnel big enough for most to walk through without stooping.

“I’d recommend a trip here for anyone,” she said. “This area has special memories for me because it marked my marriage-to-be; it would make memories for anyone. I came back here a few years ago with two of my friends on their first trip.”

On that trip, Keller’s husband and giggling friends kept urging her down the steep trail onto Ruby Beach. Walking onto the sand, a driftwood chapel, and catered meal awaited her for a surprise vow renewal ceremony on the very spot where years earlier she was betrothed.

“I’ll never forget how Olympic National Park is part of my life,” she said.

It has to be stressed, making Olympic and other national parks part of life requires planning for summer trips.

“Make those reservations early,” said Mackey. “And even if you go in July, remember to bring a parka, and it gets cold under that cloud cover and canopy.”

My experience on that July 4th weekend started with a lucky find of the campsite, and two of three days with warm weather and no rain.

The Hoh Rain Forest offers easy trails around the visitor center and campground. The longer Hoh River Trail runs nearly 17 miles (27km) towards its source at Mount Olympus. Despite its length, the river trail rates “easy.” The trail end is Blue Glacier Lake on the south side of Glacier Meadow where a backpacking campground on the shore of nearby Elk Lake awaits overnight hikers.

Miles of beaches are another key element of Olympic National Park/Rebecca Latson

Olympic National Park Seashore

Off U.S. Highway 101 north and south of Hoh, Olympic National Park preserves a series of scenic beaches where the trees march down to the waterline and giant sea stacks pop out of the ocean. These beaches aren’t for rolling out the blanket and toasting in the sun; they’re for hiking, exploration, and birdwatching.

“I’ve been on the beach when it isn’t until late in the afternoon that the clouds finally burn off,” said Keller. “But Ruby Beach is a very special place in my life.”

It was remarkable for her. On that beach that her husband proposed. Keller recalls, “Jim picked Ruby Beach because he was looking for the perfect spot, and this was a beautiful place to do it.”

At some places, like Rialto Beach, the parking area is just over a small dune from the crash of the waves. Ruby and its neighboring beach Kalaloch take a little work to hit the sand.

“The wild beaches are so close and so different from Hoh,” said Mackey. “It’s a must-see stop if you’re visiting the rainforest.”

Is it the sunsets that gave Ruby Beach its name?/Rebecca Latson

At Ruby, you follow switchback meanders down the 125-foot (38m) cliff to the beach.

“It’s a little longer walk than I remembered from when we got engaged,” said Keller, who was there for her 50th birthday and renewed vows. “It’s so well worth it to go to the beach. It’s visually interesting, and there are tide pools, sea stacks, the cliffs.”

Ruby Beach is one of the two main southern beaches in Olympic National Park, and the other, Kalaloch, is the most visited. Reach either from U.S. 101. Starting near Kalaloch Beach, the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary runs for 135 miles along the high tide line.

In addition to the national park, there are three wildlife refuges in the area. A travelway trail runs the length of the sanctuary, but portions of it are impassable at high tide. Failing to check tide tables before a hike may result in an unexpected hump up a cliffside trail to get from one part of the beach to the other.

Weaving down Mora Road alongside the Quillayute River, the journey ends at the Rialto Beach parking area. Traipsing up a dune and down on the beach opens an array of rocks, ocean-smoothed pebbles and quite a chill in the mist. The stones are much easier for walking than the sand. They mark the high tide line on a spit that connects to James Island when the tide is low.

“I’m an ocean woman,” admits Keller. “The waves, the sand, the clouds, the rocks, all of this draws me more than any other place in the park.”

In the gray afternoon, packing the stacks are hundreds of birds. Eagles, gulls and other coastal birds nest and feed between stands of trees and the shelter of craggy rocks. Closer is Gunsight Rock, where a lone tree grows on its bird-packed peak.

This trip, Ruby Beach, isn’t on the itinerary, and its absence means missing tide pools filled with sea stars and anemones exposed when the low tide pulls the ocean away.

“It’s a great place for a picnic, but it can be wet, and the clouds may sit up there until the afternoon,” Keller said. “Bring a lunch and a jacket.”

The west side of Olympic National Park is accessible from U.S. 101, west of Port Angeles and north of Aberdeen. The most visited area, Hurricane Ridge, is reached from U.S. 101 within Port Angeles.

Getting There

Find Hoh Rain Forest and the seashore beaches via U.S. 101 to Forks. Hoh Mainline Road is 13 miles  (21km) south of Forks on the east side of the road; an 18-mile (29km) rambling road from the main highway ends at the visitor center.

Rialto and north beaches are off Washington Route 110, Mora Road, which juts to the west 13 miles (21km) from U.S. 101, a turn about 1.5 miles (2.4km) north of Forks.

Ruby, Kalaloch, and the other south beaches are right on U.S. 101 27 miles (44km) south of Forks for Ruby Beach and nine miles (15km) further for Kalaloch.

Where to Stay

Peak season reservations in Forks motels and area campgrounds are highly recommended.

There are five small motels, several bed and breakfast inns, and a number of vacation rentals in Forks. Peak season is late spring to late fall, and the rooms fill rapidly.

If the Hoh campground is full, other campgrounds, including dispersed campsites, are in the close-by Olympic National Forest or on Washington State Trust lands along the road to the rainforest. For the Hoh Campground, reservations are now accepted up to six months in advance through Recreation.gov (https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/247592). Washington State Trust Lands (https://www.dnr.wa.gov/OlympicPeninsula) operate campgrounds close to the rain forest.