After starting the official day 2 of our Pacific Coast Highway road trip off with a hike at Marymere Falls, we drove the hour and half out to Hoh Rainforest for our second hike of the day.
When I first started researching this trip, I was amazed to find out that there was an actual rainforest in the middle of Washington state. The trailhead and visitor’s center is a bit out of the way from the main highway, but completely worth the trip, if even to see the incredible views on the road in.
It is a national park, and therefore does have an entrance fee. The fee is the same whether you are stopping for an hour or for a week long trip, so be prepared for the $30 fee once you’ve gotten to the guide hut. If you’re planning to do more traveling in national parks, you can also opt to purchase a pass that allows you to come and go for the year. Shortly after paying, you’ll get to the large parking area, which luckily since we got an early start, wasn’t too crowded yet and we were able to find a spot. Once the lot is full, they start allowing parking along the side of the main road, and it’s easy to find something.
There are multiple trails that start from the visitor’s center, and all of various lengths and terrains. As we were checking out the options, we spotted this VERY terrifying sign warning us of yellow jackets, which DEFINITELY got us sticking to the trail.
We wanted just a beginners guide to Hoh, and so we decided to take the Hall of Mosses trail. It’s a flat trail that takes about an hour at a leisurely pace, and all along the trail there are guideposts and educational placards giving you more insight into the vegetation and the trees.
Right away on the trail, we crossed over the most incredibly green pond I’ve ever seen. Literally there was a crowd of people around this pond just taking photos and remarking on the color.
Quickly you start to feel as if you are in the literal jungle, with crazy amounts of trees and, as per the name, lots of moss!
The coolest part of the trail to me, was getting to see up close and personal how HUGE the trees are in this area, and some of the crazy things the trees do in their natural habitat.
There are a lot of trees that have fallen down from natural causes over the years, and it’s crazy to see how the then get incorporated back into the earth. This tree fell a LONG time ago, and from the trunk you can see new roots that have grown into the ground from the tree, creating an entire new ecosystem.
This tree fell down recently, and they kept the bottom of the tree and the roots visible. You can see that there are various new plants growing out of the root system from the initial tree.
This tree fell and was carved out, and you can actually walk into the tree if you want. This was definitely a hit with the children we saw on the hike. I decided NOT to get into the trunk, as I was SURE there were be spiders.
Along the trail we also ran into some massive slugs, and it was crazy to see them just slugging along across the mail trail.
Overall, the trail is a perfect, short way to get a glimpse of the incredible rainforests in Washington. If we had more time, we’d definitely check out some of the other trails (especially since it was $30 to enter). However, we decided to continue our journey along the rest of the Washington Coast, with our next main stop in Long Beach, Washington. Make sure to check out our entire month long PCH itinerary here!
