The Hoh, Hoh, Hoh, Rain Forest

Everything we've done on this day is a run-up to the Hoh Rainforest. I believe we stopped here on our 1972 trip to Canada. We didn't stay long as I remember, but long enough to get an eye full of the rainforest. They call this a temperate rainforest instead of a tropical one. Storms come in from the Pacific Ocean and run right into the western side of the Olympic Mountains and drop rain.

Mt. Olympus at almost 8,000 feet, can receive 200 inches a year, mostly in the form of snow. There are some 30 glaciers, including the Blue and Hoh. Both of these feed the Hoh River which drops 7,000 feet to reach the ocean less than 50 miles away. The Hoh River is wide and meandering. Its width opens up a panorama of mountains behind it.

Our destination on this first full day of traveling is the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor’s Center. Its located some 17 miles up the Hoh Valley, the river is always to our right driving up. We enter the Olympic National Park and soon see a sign for “The Big Spruce Tree.” I turn off but don’t see a tree. There’s a informational placard in front of the shattered remains of a large tree. It looks like it was cut off at the knees. I find out later that this was a 550 year old spruce that met its end last December during a storm. It wasn't uprooted but somehow broken at its lower section and fell. In the picture you can the huge splinter and ripping that occurred when it fell.

When we went here in 1972 I remember opening the door and seeing a giant slug on the ground. This is a banana slug. They’re called banana because they are yellow. They have a peculiar mating ritual which I won’t go into here. At our house in Bothell and here in the forest we see black slugs. These are a non-native species from Northern Europe.

From the visitor’s center are a couple of short, easy trails. It’s also the end of the road where backpackers start their journey. Many of these backpackers go to the Blue Glazier which is the largest of all the Olympic glaciers. The Hoh glacier is the longest here at just over three miles.

By the way, the 1.? mile loop trail at Lake Quinault zapped Michele. I took the kids along the spruce trail that ran along the Hoh River on recommendation from the rangers.