Welcome back to all my readers. In my last post, we had just finished spending two days hiking at Mt. Rainier before we got on the road north to Tacoma, WA. I knew everyone would be tired and couldn’t handle a 3 hour 45 minute drive to our ultimate destination of Port Angeles, WA. so Tacoma was a great stop for our weary legs.
After a wonderful night stay at a Holiday Inn Express, we got back on the road to the Olympic National Park Visitor Center in Port Angeles, WA. We got our park stamp and discussed hiking plans with the rangers. I had made grandiose plans to do several hikes and really experience this park to the fullest. However, the ranger informed me that it would be a 2 hour drive from this location to the Hoh Rainforest. 2 Hours? She looked me in the eye and said, “This park is a 1,000,000 acres.” I guess we better get on the road then. I hadn’t come all the way to Washington state to miss seeing the Hoh Rain Forest.
This new revelation meant I had to bypass our hike to Hurricane Ridge and go straight to the far west side and the Hoh Visitor Center. Surprise, surprise, this parking lot was jammed too. We had to park well outside the main parking lot on the road leading into the Hoh area. This area is really popular but don’t get your hopes up to find a cool t-shirt to take home. This visitor center is really small with almost no retail presence at all. There is almost no commercial presence at all in this area. No gas stations, no restaurants and no souvenir shops.
I had my mind prepared for rain and extremely damp conditions. It really wasn’t that way. It was actually quite dry in the Hoh during our visit. I’m sure during other times of the year, it rains frequently promoting the growth of the dense moss we saw everywhere.
The trees were all really large and tall but not quite the girth of the Redwoods I had seen earlier this summer. Below is the money-shot that is most often photographed or seen in Google image searches of the Hoh. I was fortunate to snap this pic with no people in the background.
The hiking trails in the Hoh are relatively short and flat allowing half-day visitors like us to get the flavor without putting in miles to see it. The Hall of Mosses trail is 3/4 of a mile and the Spruce Nature Trail is 1.25 mile. These two trails were perfect for us to get some great photographs yet have enough time to get on the road to other areas of the park we still wanted to see.
The Ruby Beach area of Olympic National Park should NOT be missed. It was another 45 or 50 minute drive from the Hoh Visitor Center west over to the Pacific coast. Since we had driven this far, I wasn’t going to stop now. If I were to return to Olympic National Park in the future with our grandkids, we will for sure spend a full day or even two along the coast at Ruby Beach.
I know that’s a bold statement but Ruby turned out to be one of my favorite memories of the entire trip. Below was our first view..
Such a beautiful, unblemished coastal ecosystem. Below is my wife and I enjoying the salty air.
I saw people off in the distance down by the two islands. My curiosity arose wondering what they were seeing. I strolled down the beach away from our group. They soon caught up to find me climbing all over the rock formations. We spent at least an hour taking photos of the ocean through these all natural picture frames. 
Just when I thought this was great, but we should probably get on the road. The sun was dropping radiply, we hadn’t eaten dinner and were over 2 hours from our hotel. I walked farther down the beach to the larger island that protruded into the surf. My sense of exploration paid off huge.
Words cannot express how gratifying this was. A Regular Guy from Ohio wading in knee high water out and discovering sea life like this. It’s so different than anything I have ever seen before, we all felt like marine biologists examining these creatures.
I finally corralled our group and herded everyone back to the parking lot. We began the drive back East across the Olympic Peninsula to our next hotel. We stopped for a late dinner that night in Forks, WA which is famous for the Twilight movie / book series being based there.
I had to call and arrange for a late check-in that night. We didn’t arrive at our hotel till after 11pm. What a memorable day that will rank in the top of my list of park experiences. Make sure you come back for my last post from the Olympic Peninsula. The Regular Guy and group go on a whale watching tour and have the experience of a lifetime!
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