Olympic National Park - rain forests and rivers

After Hurricane Ridge, we stopped off at the Hoh Rain Forest and Sol Duc Valley.



At the Hoh, we only walked the two short 1 mile hikes as we were pretty beat from the day before. The Hall of Mosses trail takes you through a loop of various trees and plant life. We didn't really take too many pics as it was mid-day and the sun was a bit harsh causing lots of shadows. We did take a few of each other though.









The Spruce Nature trail leads out to the Hoh river.

Once we got to the river, we walked out along the rocks to see the milky blue water. The river starts at Mt. Olympus and is fed by the glaciers therefore causing the water to turn that distinct color. It was actually really cool to see, and there was a nice breeze there so we hung around for a bit before heading back out on the trail. There is a separate Hoh River trail that we will take if we are ever back in the area.





We also drove down to the Sol Duc (Soleduck) valley to hike about a mile to the falls. Still a lot of shadows so I tried to focus on just the surrounding falls. Took pics from a few different angles.











Including this one that J took of me.



I feel like the rain forest area would be best visited a few months earlier after the rainy season when there is a lot more growth and green. It was still cool to see, and nice that it wasn't too far of a drive from the mountains we just came from.

We headed off to the NW coast for our last stop to visit some of the scenic beaches of the park. I'll save those for my next post.

Brandon Yoshizawa
B.A.Y | photography
Landscape and Wildlife photography
www.bay-photography.com