The Hoh Rainforest is one of the main attractions in Olympic National Park. (Hurricane Ridge is the other main one.) The Olympic National Park Instagram account said the Hoh Rainforest parking lot is full by 9 am on the weekends, so get there early.
They were not kidding! I got there at 8:40 am, and the good-sized parking lot was full shortly after. Rangers hold cars at the park entrance (similar to what they were doing for Hurricane Ridge), and the wait to get past the gate into the parking lot looked like it got up to 45 minutes (according to the “your wait time from here is” signs tacked up on the road). The entrance plaza wasn’t open yet when I went through, so I got to go straight to the parking lot.
One of the reasons the area is so popular is that it is easily accessible. The awesome Hall of Mosses is a short walk from your car on a mostly flat, less-than-a-mile loop.
Look at this little guy! I don’t know what it is! He was TINY, like he could fit in a ping pong ball (notice the size of the Christmas tree pine needles next to him). He didn’t seem to realize I was there.
One of the big surprises was the sun. The western side of the Olympic Peninsula was sunny, Forks was sunny, the rainforest was sunny. These are places I thought were covered in clouds 100% of the time. So it was a gorgeous day!
Apparently the mosses live off moisture and nutrient-filled air. The interpretative sign encouraged visitors to see which types of mosses were growing on which trees and in which moisture/air situations.
Another sign said the trees can get over 200 feet tall and play host to a different collection of critters (birds, flying squirrels). It listed Sitka spruce, western hemlock, and Douglas fir as the types of trees.
By