After sleeping a full 10 hours in Port Angeles we woke up quite refreshed the next morning and ready to get an early start on the day! Breakfast was included at our hotel so grabbed that and then hit the road, driving back out the same way we had gone the day before.
We made great time and were at the Hoh rainforest in a little less than 2 hours. This included stopping along the way for a couple photos too. First piece of advice on this day: but gas in Port Angeles! Much cheaper than Forks or other stops along the way.
Hoh Rainforest was the main reason I wanted to go to Olympic National Park at all! After seeing photos from parents’ trip there last year, I just couldn’t get over the cool scenery with the moss growing everywhere. So I was super excited to finally make it there! Again we found that the trails around were very short. The Hall of Mosses is the famous trail in the rainforest and that’s 0.8 miles total in the loop. There’s another one that passes near the river that is closer to 2 miles and then the River Trail itself which goes for 15 miles in length. We decided to start with the Hall of Mosses first.
We had enjoyed the mossy forests during our hikes the day before, so my expectations were set REALLY high now that we were in rainforest central! And sure enough there were a couple really cool sections on this hike that looked awesome, including a group of maple trees. As far as hiking in the rainforest goes, this was definitely my favorite hike we did, but it’s not alllllllll that different than the other hiking we had done the day before. I would highly recommend it so you can get the most rainforest feel. But honestly if you don’t have time for everything, one of the other waterfall hikes would also provide many opportunities for the rainforest feel as well.
We took it really slow all throughout Hoh snapping photos and such. The picnic area right near the parking lot actually provided quite a few nice photos as well! There is also camping available right by the parking lot, near the Visitor Center. It would be quiet place to camp and kind of neat too though beware you are far, far away from any sort of grocery stores or restaurants.
We opted not to do any other hikes besides the Hall of Mosses as at that point we felt like all the moss and trees were starting to look the same. So we headed out to see the beach instead! We were planning on camping at the Kalaloch campground for the evening so figured we’d stop at Ruby Beach along the drive. I debated back and forth between Rialto Beach and Ruby Beach for a long time- and finally decided on Ruby as Rialto seemed more just like the normal ocean views while Ruby had sea stacks which is what I wanted.
When we arrived it was raining pretty hard. This was the first time where we were trying to hike with a lot of rain coming down, before that had all just been light sprinkling. We decided to wait a few minutes in the car, snacking on some granola bars, to see if it would clear up. Sure enough within 10 minutes it had stopped and we headed down to the beachfront.
It was beautiful! Seeing the water crash against the sea stacks and the waves coming up on the rocks all around was just so pretty. If you’re looking for a nice calm beach, this is not the area for you. It was definitely a lot wilder with a lot of huge tree trunks even washed up all around on shore. We had a great time walking along the “beach” which was more smooth rocks than sand since we came right at high tide. I was REALLY bummed about that (it was around 1:30pm) as Ruby Beach is also famous for incredible tide pools with purple anemones, star fish, crabs and other creatures. Unfortunately low tide was at 7:30 am and 7:30pm, so we definitely were not there at the right time.
We spent a while walking along and then just sitting on the rocks for a bit too. The actual beach area isn’t all that long though you could continue on around the corners I suppose. It was nice to just enjoy some time out there relaxing. We eventually walked back up to the car (5 min walk) and continued on down the road to the Kalaloch Lodge area. The campsite is a 1 min drive from the lodge and we did a quick drive through there to check things out- it looked AWESOME! Lots of mossy trees around and right on the coast, what a fun place to camp. The Lodge is also an option for staying overnight though very expensive. We opted to each lunch there which was a big mistake as things were VERY pricy, at least to us. Our meal was over $30 again which pushed our budget way past what I was expecting.
At this point it was around 3:00pm and we were deciding what we should do. We’d seen the main sites for the day already and still had many hours to go before bed time. Additionally the drive back to Seattle was going to be 3 hours the next day. We opted to make the drive that evening instead and have almost a full day in Seattle for our last day. I hadn’t thought we were going to get through all our hikes so quickly so I would also advise visitors to keep that in mind: trails are all very short.
The Kalaloch campground has reservation options during the summer, but we were too early for that so had no reservation we had already paid for. When we drove in around 3:00pm there were plenty of spaces open so don’t worry if you’re going around this time of year as well. We drove first to Hoquiam which had an RV/camping park- the area was a bit ghetto, not pretty nature like at all and the guy running the place was pretty grumpy. It was still plenty early so we opted to keep going and aim for Olympia instead.
Along the way we took a quick detour at “Beach 1” which is right off the main road. We didn’t feel like walking all the way down to the beach since it looked pretty much the same as the other beach areas (no sea stacks). But it was interesting to see the trees with tumors on them that we walked though! Apparently it was from some sort of virus or worm from being so close to the coast. Very bizarre.
Also made one other pit stop at the world’s largest spruce tree, probably a 10-15 minute detour from the main road. This was a bit underwhelming, though the hike to reach it is only .3 miles so it’s a quick trip!
We ended up at Riverbend Campground which I highly recommend! It was only 3 miles off the highway which was perfect and had very clean bathroom facilities. There were showers somewhere as well though we didn’t use them at all so I don’t know how nice they are. The campground was pretty empty overall which was great for us. There is a gated entrance with a code to get in but a phone number is provided. Once you call the number, the campground manager will give you the code and instructions on where to leave payment.
Another big plus was the food options close by! On the same exit were quite a few options which made it nice to not have to get back on the interstate to drive into Olympia to eat. We found a small restaurant called “Mac and More” which has a million varieties of macaroni and cheese! It was cute, fun and a lot more in our price range 🙂 We called it an early night again after dinner as we planned to get up early and make the most of our last day. Another warning: IT WAS COLD AT NIGHT! We both didn’t sleep all that well as we were chilly with temps down in the 30’s.
Summary:
- Hikes in Olympic National Park are short and quick- plan accordingly!
- Avoid eating at the Kalaloch Lodge- there will be other small diner options not too far away for much cheaper, grab one of those!
- Try to hit Ruby Beach at low tide, not high tide like us
- Again, you never know how the rain will be from one part of the park to another or even from one time to another.
Fire Round the World 