A Hiking Adventure: Hoh Rain Forest, La Push Indian Reservation, Rialto Beach

This weekend was honestly one of my favorite weekend I have had since moving here. To start Saturday was Cinco De Mayo and I went out with a few people that I met at the YMCA playing volleyball. The couple times I’ve gone out with them, I’ve noticed, and am surprised to say, that Aberdeen has quite the fun nightlife! I was planning on hiking with a co-worker Sunday early, so I knew to take it easy! But I had a great time out on the town and  am beginning to meet a lot of people here (but don’t ask me names, because I couldn’t tell you. I’ve been introduced to so many people it’s hard to keep them straight).

On Sunday, a co-worker and I set out to explore, and hike, the Hoh Rain Forest and other locations on the northwest corner of WA. The weather was sunny and 65 degrees with a little breeze. Perfect hiking weather! It took quite a bit of time (2 hours to be exact) to get to the their, but neither myself nor my co-worker, Kristi, minded the drive. Plus, the drive was B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L! When we arrived at the entrance of the rain forest, we were surprised to find that the entrance was actually 15 miles from the trail heads. I mean there are other trail heads, but Kristi and I were more interested in the main trails; the Hall of Mosses which is a simple .8 mile loop through old growth temperate rain forest and the Spruce Nature Trail which is a 1.2 mile loop that leads to the Hoh River

Information about Hoh Rain Forest: Mild winters, cool summers and up to 12 feet of annual precipitation produce the giant conifers that dominate this rain forest (1 of the most spectacular examples of temperate rain forest in the WORLD!). Not to mention on of the World Heritage Sites. This forest also contains bigleaf maple and vine maple which host an abundance of epiphytes (plants growing upon other plants) which give this rain forest its characteristic look and ethereal quality. A plethora of mosses, ferns and plants compete for space on the forest floor’ grazing elk keep the understory open. Dead and downed trees decay slowly and support new life as “nurselogs”.

Now on to the hikes. I honestly have no words to describe what I experienced in this forest. I never understood how nature can clear the mind, but this forest did just that. Not to mention the fact that a baby deer scared the bejesus out of me. Literally. I mean the deer was chilling on the trail but was hidden from us behind a tree, and when it jumped, I jumped. Besides the deer, the most entertaining aspect to these hikes were trying to figure out which tree was what tree. We had to choose between Douglas Fir, Western Hemlock, and Spruce, and even with visual descriptions I still couldn’t really tell the difference. But, it was fun trying to figure it out! I took pictures of other information pertaining to scenery, but if I continued this blog would never end, so check out HERE for pictures of the hike!

We finished the hikes early than expected, so we decided to head north towards La Push Indian Reservation and Rialto Beach. If you know anything about the Twilight Saga, than the picture above explains itself. If not, here is the jist. The series is about vampires, who live in Forks, WA and werewolves, who live on La Push land and well, the treaty line is basically a boundary line. From this point, we headed towards the beach and again, I was speechless. The cliffs, the rocks, the bleached logs, the waves, and the freezing ocean breeze created such a glorious sight that pictures are the only way to describe what I saw. It wasn’t very busy, which I was told this location gets packed during the summer months, so Kristi and I were able to take our time and soak up the beauty. Click here for pictures! Overall, this weekend was more than I could have asked and I continue to fall more in love with the state of Washington. I am excited for what is in store for me next. Stay tuned!!!

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