Once again the weather forecast was for rain in the morning as we headed out for the west side of the park. It was a two hour drive to the Hoh Rain Forest visitor center. We checked out the exhibits and checked with the rangers on the trail conditions. We decided to hike the Hoh River Trail to the first set of waterfalls. The hike through the old growth trees, hanging moss (6.1 miles, 220 ft of elevation gain, 1507 calories burned) was humid! But it was a rain forest, so it was supposed to be! The first 2.5 miles were fairly flat but the next .5 miles was some steep up and down. We made it to the first waterfall in quick time. There was a bridge over the stream, but the really big drop was higher up in the forest and there was no trail to climb up to it. We decided to go on up to the second waterfall indicated on the All Trails map. That was only .2 miles further, but it was more of a babbling brook than a waterfall. The trees were massive and all of them were covered with moss and lichens. The ground was covered with ferns. Even here, the trees were starting to change colors. The reds and yellows contrasted with the deep greens. We came across some elk poop on the trail but did not see any critters beyond a squirrel. We have become quite the northwest hikers. We can tell elk poop, from deer poop and bear poop! We can even tell the difference between black bear poop and grizzly bear poop! Black bear poop has seeds and berries in it. Grizzly bear poop has those little bells they sell the tourists to wear to scare the bears away!
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| Its Mossey |
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| Waterfall #1 |
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| David on the bridge by waterfall #1 |
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| Colors are changing already! |
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