Olympic NP Day 2: Rialto Beach and the Rain Forest

Rialto Beach Sea Stacks

Today we got up around 6:00 AM and took our time getting ready and had breakfast at the lodge.  After breakfast we made the 2 hour drive up to Rialto Beach, to see the sea stacks and a feature called the “hole in the wall”.  The drive up to Rialto was not exciting, but it did require a drive through the town of Forks.  This is the same town that the “Twilight” books and movies were set. In the town there is a store dedicated to Twilight. Rialto beach is a mix of sand and rocks, the upper portion of the beach was rocky while closer to the water was sandy.  The day was very cloudy, and the beach had a decent sea mist blowing across it which made the beach feel kind of moody.  The walk out to the “hole in the wall” can only be accomplished during low tide and about two miles long (one way) on a relatively flat beach. We got there at 10:30 with max low tide at noon, so we had plenty of time to walk the wall and back.  Along the walk, at least at low tide, there are several tide pools that have a variety of sea life in them.  We were lucky enough to see a several green anomies, purple and orange starfish, and a tiny fish.  Since Jim took the underwater camera, instead of his large camera, he took a few under water pictures of the anomies.  After the walk on the beach we got takeout from a small café that had a “Twilight” theme and then headed to the Hoh Rain Forest.

The Hoh Rain Forest is a temperate rain forest that has a lot of moss and large trees. It was very crowded when we got there, which was about 2:15PM. So, we had some trouble finding a parking spot.  Once we found a parking spot, we stopped at the visitor center, which isn’t open, but a park ranger stands outside behind a piece of plexi glass giving directions and answering questions.  We decided to walk the two most popular trails the spruce trail and the hall of moss trail which were 1.5 miles and 0.8 miles respectively.  Both these trails are loop trails, so you can only go clockwise around them.  The trails were nice, however due to the number of people and social distancing pressures I felt rushed and didn’t feel like I could truly appreciate the trail.  There were several spots for nice photos, but they would take preparation to set up and frame properly, and I didn’t feel I could take the time to do that with people constantly coming up behind me.  We did not do the 14-mile hike (one way) out to see Mt. Olympus and its glaciers; we just didn’t have the time or the will to hike 28-miles round trip.

After visiting the rainforest, we headed back to the lodge.  At this point we are still debating what we will do on Sunday. We might do a few more of the hikes near the lodge and see the big Sitka spruce tree.