Travel Blog #10: Olympic National Park Day 2

Ruby’s Beach, iPhone XR

Going back to Olympic for a second day, we realized the stark difference between this and so many other parks is easy parking. Because it’s so massive and there are so many different areas to visit, the parking lots are easy to access. The longest we had to look for a spot here was making a second loop, so maybe just an extra 2 minutes after dropping everyone off near the visitor center. Speaking of Visitor Centers, the official Olympic National Park shops don’t have a great amount of interesting stuff. The place we purchased ours was Peak 6 gift shop. It’s owned by a couple older ladies that are very entertaining to chat with and know a lot about the area. It’s got a lot of supplies if you need anything for camping or hiking that you forgot at home at very reasonable prices. It’s just off the road heading into Hoh Rainforest on the left side. You’ll know you’re in the right place when you see a couple life sized stuffed bears having a tea party out front.

Hall of Mosses, Nikon F2

Hall of Mosses Ferns, Nikon F2

Driving into an area described as a rainforest, I genuinely didn’t know what to expect. I kept picturing toucans and monkeys for some reason. I know Washington isn’t the same as the Amazon Basin, but I’d never knowingly been to one before. As I soon learned, rainforests are pretty much the same as regular forests but more moss and a little extra humidity. We decided to do the two loops heading out from the main trailhead, Hall of Mosses and Spruce Nature Trails. Both start from the same place, and then branch off in opposite directions. Hall of Mosses seems to be the more popular of the two and for good reason, the greenery is amazing! It’s a very accessible trail: nice, easy, well maintained and not a lot of elevation change. We made sure to go out on all the little loops and that is where the highlights are. It’s hard to really capture the colors and size of this place on camera. Even on the dry day we were there, it seemed like some of this moss would drip water if you grabbed it. If you only have time or energy for one hike on this side of the park this is a good one and only takes maybe 30-40 minutes if you go slow. For a little more adventurous walk, make a right at the fork and take the Spruce Nature Trail.

Spruce did not have nearly as much moss, and the hike was a little difficult but was more fun with a varied scenery. At this point of the trip, we had become a bit desensitized to beautiful views, and we were moving through a little quicker than we would have been earlier in the week. One of the signs we saw for a longer trail coming off ours mentioned frequent bobcat sightings…I kind of wish we had seen one. The trail was a meandering 1 ¼ miles with a breakout near the river about halfway through. The water here was so clear you could see the bottom even across at the other bank. I’m not sure it would be safe to drink, but the Ranger I talked with for a minute didn’t seem to think it would be the worst idea when I made a joke about it. Getting back to our car after this was one of the only times I felt like we hadn’t spent enough time on the park. There is just so much to see and do, and we had only been in for about 4 hours. Thankfully we had one more stop, and we wanted to get there before the weather changed. There was a possibility of rain and Ruby’s beach was almost an hour drive away from the middle of the park where we were.

Spruce Nature Trail, Nikon F2

Riverside, Nikon F2

Ruby’s was probably the most free-spirited part of this park. There is one main lot to get to it, and it was busy. The path down to the beach itself was paved but it’s quite a hike to get down to the sand with lots of switch backs and multiple exits off the path. Even if you don’t want to go all the way down, the view from the top is worth a stop. The weather had changed drastically over the hour between Hoh and Ruby’s. Fog was heavy and everything seemed to be shades of grey, so I loaded a roll of Black and White to try and take advantage of the contrast. Not a single shot turned out, I underexposed all of them. I thought for sure this was going to be my Ansel Adams moment, where I would be selling these photos well into my retirement and people would be lining up to view them in museums. Now I need to go back and reshoot all of them. This is also the reason I took a digital camera and phone just in case. The driftwood was everywhere, thousands of stark white sticks and logs. Tide pools held small fish and we even saw a tiny urchin stuck in a pool on a boulder three feet above the beach. I’d love to see this place at high tide someday and relax on a sunny day in a beach chair.

The plan from here was to drive straight to Mt. Rainier and spend the following day exploring before heading to Glacier National Park. When we looked online to find a place to stay, we discovered not only would we be driving another three hours out of the way to get close, we would also have the privilege of spending $500 minimum to sleep in a basic hotel room. We spent a few minutes debating whether it was worth the trip, then headed west toward Glacier when we also saw it was going to rain all day. I would really love to see Mt. Rainier some day and maybe I will, but I won’t spend $500 to sleep regardless of how cool a place is.