2022 Washington State Day Six

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Today, before check out time at Kalaloch, we had one more breakfast buffet at Creekside Restaurant. We packed before, so it was easy to take off on today’s adventure by early morning.

There were a number of options for us in the area but as we drove north out of Kalaloch, we realized that the Hoh Rainforest, my number one priority to see, was on the route we were taking today. Since it seemed to make sense not to back track this far, we made a decision to do it today.

To our surprise (a little), we ran into our first July vacation/overcrowding situation as we drove the entrance road to the national park. Luckily, we hit the line to get in at a spot that said our wait would only be 15 minutes (by the time we left today, around 2 PM, the line was back to the 1 ½ hour mark). So we were ultimately in the Hoh Rainforest National Park at about 10:30 AM. 

There are four walking trails at the park and we opted to walk two.

The first was The Hall of Mosses (which thanks to Denice became The Hall of Moses). We parted the Red Sea and went for a walk in the rainforest.

Denice thought this looked like an animal about to bite another

As much as it is a rainforest, and this area gets 140’ of rain in a year (the most in the entire continental US), it seems dry here. Dry or not, it is gorgeous.

After freshening up at the Ranger Station, walk number two was on the Spruce Trail

We both thought this looked like the eye of a whale

The low Hoh--it feel dry here

Our intent upon leaving the Hoh Rainforest at 2:00 PM was not fulfilled either when we made a stop at the Hard Rain Café, just outside the park, for a tea and PBJ. Turns out this area has a River Walk so we did.

By the time all this was done, Denice and I decided to take a scenic drive on Hwy 112 to our destination for the night, Port Angeles. In the town of Forks, we found the #10 Shay Locomotive, a reminder of the logging days of yore. 

We are staying here two nights at the quaint Port Angeles Inn which has this view for our front door. 

It is nice to be back in something that resembles civilization because Denice and I went to Sabor in Port Angeles which turned out to be a marvelous small plate restaurant. The only down side was we arrived late and without a reservation and ended up being the last people they sat for a meal. We felt bad so we went for entrees rather than small plates but mine, a seafood combo, was to die for.