Hall of Mosses

One of the reasons Olympic National Park was created in 1938 to preserve  "the finest example of primeval forest", making the Hoh (pronounced hoe) Valley from the park boundary to Mount Olympus look much like it has for 5,000 years.  Mild winters, cool summers and up to 12 feet of annual precipitation produce the giant conifers (cone bearing evergreen trees) that dominate this area of the park one of the most spectacular examples of temperate rain forest in the world.

Although this loop trail from the visitor center is only about a mile long with 100' of elevation gain, it proved to be quite a hike for our friends Brock and Leola, both of whom have physical problems that often limit their walks to short strolls on flat surfaces.  However, they came a long way to see giant moss-covered trees and away we all went.

Those trees were not hard to find.

Remembering our "nurse log" lesson from the Visitor Center yesterday (Around Katie's Barn blog)

we were able to easily identify remnants of several "nurses" and their "babies"

and where several "nurses had completely decayed leaving part of the remaining trees' root systems permanently above ground.

We learned about blow-downs also, 

but without the sign would not have been able to identify this blow-down stump covered with seedlings, mosses and ferns.

This stump has apparently only recently uprooted.  A section had been cut for the trail between it

and the rest of the tree to give a horizontal view of its length.

By the time we had walked, rested often, and taken over a hundred photos--each, we were thoroughly satisfied with our visit.  We piled into the truck and drove to Forks, and stopped at Blakeslees Bar and Grill for supper

then reversed our drive of this morning and headed for home.

The drive from Chimacum to Hoh Rain Forest took 3 hours because the rolling, curving road reduced our average speed to 40 mph, typical of most national parks, but also typical of most of the roads along the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  We had originally planned to ride the bikes on this 260 mile (round trip) excursion, with an overnight stay at a local motel, but found that all of the motels and inns were "booked through August".    Plan B went into effect.  We left at 8 am and rode together in our truck, made our usual stops for restrooms, food, and scenic views and photos (going and coming), and took our time at Olympic National Park, then drove home.  We arrived about 9 pm, tired but happy with the way our trip turned out.

Ready for a couple of days home,

Louse and Duane