46th Stop - Hoh Rain Forest, Forks WA

Blog Post #57 - Written March 19, 2026

Stay: August 31-September 1, 2025

The magic of Washington continues in the Hoh Rain Forest.  We entered through Forks, WA (yes, that Forks from Twilight) and to no one's surprise, it was cool and misty.  And we were only slightly disappointed to find out that we were missing the annual Twilight Festival by a week.  And by slightly, I mean not at all.  

Our campground for the night was in the back area of Hard Rain Cafe, a small food joint along the entrance road into the Hoh Rain Forest.  We pulled into the parking lot, (which was packed and not very large), and blocked all traffic as I waited in a long lunch line to check into our spot.  Boy, was it nice and cozy trying to wedge ourselves into the back.  I don't think we actually hit anything, but the fence definitely was potential firewood.  

But it was all worth it.  For surrounding our spot, were BLACKBERRY BUSHES!!! Tons of blackberry bushes.  And so, the kids picked/ate blackberries as we set up.  Our host recommended a hike across the street, so we crossed the main road and entered a beautiful flora corridor packed with fragrant BLACKBERRY BUSHES!!!! So we filled our hands and pockets again, and promised ourselves we would come back with more tupperware and baggies for blackberries.

There were miles of blackberry bushes with billions of berries (and thorns). Ouch and yum!

** Now is a good time to remind you readers that our freezer is tiny.  And our fridge space limited.  So yes, we did sacrifice much to store our copious amounts of blackberries. But that is what syrup and cobbler is for. And blackberry milk / smoothies, pictured below **

Our little hike across the street was fun.  The path kept crossing along a small creek until it lead to the Hoh River.  We made rock towers and threw stones across the river.

The next day was our adventure into the Hoh itself.  Our host had warned us that parking in the park was extremely limited.  The last few days had traffic backed up to the restaurant, 12 miles away!  So he recommended leaving early to get a spot.  Like really early.  Which ended up being both a great recommendation and also completely unnecessary.  We left around like 6am, while it was still dark outside, and enjoyed a beautiful and quiet hike along thickly dense trees, covered in a brilliant green moss. We saw no other cars on our way in, no ranger at the entrance station, and only one other hiker on our first hike. It was glorious.   

Our later hikes started to have more chaos and commotion as more people started to show up.  It was still beautiful, but kind of threw off the ambiance.  And made it extremely difficult as we took the Jeep jogger stroller down a trail that not one, but TWO groups said a stroller could handle.  (LIES!) So Gary had a grand ol' time finagling the stroller up and down hills, over roots, and under tree arches.  Oh, and up and down stairs! So much fun...

Somehow we raised a bunch of treehuggers!

 

These trees are so funky and look like Ents haha, the perfect jungle gyms for our little hobbits!

 

Z is holding a root of a tree that planted itself on a bark shelf about 15 feet above ground on this larger tree (left pic.) 

These hikes were the beginning of our large tree adventures (to be continued as we travel down the pacific coast).  We found Big Spruce - a large tree that not even all of us could completely circumference. We made it to the edge of one path and took a break to play along the bank of the Hoh River again. Z and Gary went exploring downstream, wading through frigid water and found a random patch of extremely blue and beautiful water.  So cool!

Gary was quite impressed that Z braved the frigid waters barefoot to follow him!

Gary and Z found this beautiful log crossing the river, but an equally beautiful, and much more dangerous, bee hive/wasp nest blocked their way.

Our favorite part of the day was listening to one of the most educating Park Ranger seminars we had ever experienced.  He taught us about the different types of trees in the Hoh, the pattern of trees growing in straight lines, and why there is so much growth on the bark of the trees.  When a tree falls, it becomes what is called a Nursery Log, a fertile spot for new trees to grow.  And so, in many of the forests, you could see the lines where trees had grown from death.  

  

The Ranger also told us to come back in January as that's when the salmon are swimming through this river (left pic) through the forest and when you have the chance to spot bears and otters feasting on the fish!

The symbiotic relationships in the forest were incredible.  The moss was actually a type of plant form called epiphytes, and they are not parasitic. The epiphytes actually make up an insane proportion of the forest's biomass, I think the ranger said it was like 40-60%. They release an incredible amount of oxygen, making the Hoh one of the cleanest places to breathe.  It supposedly has the quietest cubic inch of space in the world, but we didn't find it.  It probably would have been easier if we didn't have children with us...

 

One of our favorite things along the paths were the elaborate root systems. Once the trees fall over, the base was enormous.  And very fun to climb.  

 

We ended our adventure at a historical marker near the Cafe, a perfect spot to collect banana slugs and read about the Natives of the area and the entrance of the Europeans.