The second day of our Olympia adventure started with a drive deep into the National Park, along the Hoh River. The Hoh Rainforest is said to be one of the "must see" places in the park, so we decided we had to see it! It was another long drive down a two-lane road...I can imagine that in the summer, the traffic is probably super slow, but we hardly saw any cards on our drive in.
The Hoh River is beautiful! There are so many huge rivers that come down out of the mountains...all of them have banks lined with huge logs, and look like something out of a nature special. It really seemed like we were in the middle of the wilderness! We were really close to it, we certainly weren't in it (we did drive there, after all) - but it still seemed a lot closer than our usual hiking destinations! We started out on a short trail, the Hall of Mosses trail, right by the ranger station. It's the one that everyone does, since it's short and shows off the rainforest at its best.
It was a great little warmup hike! Similar to the overwhelming amount of green we encountered at Lake Quinault, the rainforest was incredible (if much more sunny than rainy...). The trailside signs told me to look at the tree that fell along the path, and to try to guess how long it was...I was so absorbed in tree measurements that I turned the corner of the trail and found that we were suddenly about twenty feet away...
...from a huge elk! It was just munching on some berry bushes, or something - it knew we were there (it's not as if we exactly walk quietly), but it just ignored us and kept eating. Kind of like our cats! It slightly unnerved me, though, because of a similarly giant warning sign down at the ranger station that said to "beware of aggressive elk!" and to "stay at least 100 feet away and report all sightings!". Aggressive elk? I thought we only had to worry about black bears and mountain lions...sigh. Anyway, we went (or hid...) behind some logs to take this picture, even though it certainly wouldn't have cared or noticed if we hadn't! We continued onto the actual trail, the Hoh River Trail, wondering if we'd encounter any more large forest animals.
That trail was uneventful in terms of large wildlife, but really pretty and quiet. We didn't pass another hiker until we were almost all the way back to the parking lot! We had a quick lunch by the river, in the sun, and came back to the entrance. When we got back, I was wishing I hadn't hidden behind those logs to take a picture of the elk, so we decided to go back up to the first trail just in case it was still there. A family with loud kids came out right before we got there, so we figured it had probably gone a long time ago. When we got back to the spot where we saw it before, there was no trace, just a green patch. Then, we turned around...
He was still there! A little bit farther away this time, still just eating away. There was another elk with him this time...but she was probably there all along. We were glad we went back up and got to see both of them. We don't get many up-close encounters with wildlife in Oregon...just the occasional squirrel. After our hike, we drove back to the coast and headed out to the beach. More on that to come!
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