Hoh Rainforest and Ruby Beach - Trip Planning Tips

We were blessed to get to stay inside Olympic National Park in our little trailer with solar power. When we traveled with our big diesel motor home, staying inside the national park campgrounds with their tiny spaces and no electricity wasn't a possibility. But even when staying inside this massive park, things were still further apart than we first realized, and took longer to drive to. So it takes some good planning, a sense of location, and realistic expectations for a successful trip. We knew that Olympic National Park encompassed most of the Olympic Peninsula--which is the the entire northwest section of the state that is surrounded by water on three sides. Highway 101 circles the peninsula, and is the main thoroughfare. But all the "attractions" tourists want to see were on spur roads that can be many miles off the 101. Speed limits were slow, so travel times were long. For instance, we were staying in the national park at Mora Campground, but it was a two-hour drive to get there after we entered the southern entrance of the park. That's why we made a couple stops with the trailer in tow on our way to the campground--to avoid having to drive two hours back to see those attractions. 

The second day's plan was to see two of Olympic National Park's most popular attractions--Hoh Rain Forest and Ruby Beach. Hoh Rain Forest was the closest "attraction" to our campground, but it was 44 miles away. At the slow speed limits, it took us well over an hour to get to Hoh Rain Forest! 

So we were up at 6:15 for the early morning trip. The ranger had told us to be there before 9 a.m. or after 6 p.m., or expect to spend two hours in line waiting for a parking space. We had to drive thirty minutes to get from our campground to highway 101, then we drove through the town of Forks, then through three different construction one-lane sections with waits each time, then 18 more miles off highway 101 on the spur road to the rain forest. Whew!

Because we were so early, there wasn't a line where they were metering the number of cars that were filling the small parking area close to the trails. But we saw signs along the road that indicated the wait times from each point. For example, if you were in line at a certain posted sign you could expect a 30-minute wait, or another sign indicated a hour-long wait, or another sign posted a two-hour wait. We were glad to be early with no wait!

But we didn't see those wait time signs until we had already driven almost an hour. For visitors that weren't aware of the crowds, it would be a sad thing to see those signs after already driving so far. Even getting there so early in the morning, all the spaces in the parking lot were full, and we had to park well down the road adding to our hiking distances this morning.

We were glad we had done our homework earlier (back when we had a phone signal) because the Hoh Rainforest visitor center was not yet open for the day. We knew we wanted to first hike the Hall of Mosses Trail Loop. The pictures on the blog so far have been of this 1.4-mile loop from the most famous rain forest in the United States.

It was filled with ferns and old-growth Sitka Spruce, Western Hemlocks, and Big Leaf Maples that were draped in moss. It was a magical place! Even with the long drive early this morning, it was definitely worth it to wander more of God's wonders at the Hoh Rain Forest!

The size of the trees was amazing! Over their long life-times, many of their roots have formed cave-like entrances under them.

It was hard to tell how tall tree were until they fell to the ground. This was just a third of the length of this fallen tree, and Denisa seemed very far away in the picture below.

By the time we finished our hike around the Hall of Mosses trail, the visitor center was open. This was where we could have stamped our national park passport book--if we just would have been smart enough to start one ten years ago.

We also saw that a ranger was getting ready to give a talk this morning. We always learn so many things at these presentations, so we stayed to listen. He pointed out that it took 100 inches of rain per year to meet the definition of a rain forest. While that isn't usually a problem, they were way behind in rainfall for 2025. They were hoping for a rainy fall season.

He explained the differences between the sticky Sitka spruce and the droopy hemlock trees that we had walked beneath. These two tree species made up most of the trees here at Hoh Rain Forest. He also pointed out the Douglas-fir trees, which Mr. Douglas misnamed because they in fact were not fir trees at all. The only deciduous tree that does well with this much moisture is the big leaf maple. This tree got its clever name because--well--the leaves are big. While the hemlock trees grow to gigantic proportions with all the rain, it was interesting that their pine cones were so small.

We learned that the pine cones from the Douglas fir trees had a unique marking. The ranger called the markings "mouse bites."

After learning so much, we decided to hike the 1.5 mile Spruce Nature Trail. That gave us a chance to practice our tree identification skills.

The trail had plenty of those big leaf maple trees with big leaves.

This loop leads all the way to the Hoh River, and many longer trails that head even deeper into Olympic National Park's interior. We didn't have time for a long hike, because it wouldn't fit into our trip planning.

We were staying six days inside the national park, so we had the time to make this early morning trip to see the rain forest. But for visitors in a hurry, some sources recommended a stop at the Quinault Rain Forest instead. We stopped there yesterday on our way in, and we would say that the Hoh was grander, but similar to the Quinault.

These big old trees were nurtured by abundant rain fall, but they also got the violent winds from coastal storms. A giant tree leave a massive root ball when it falls in the forest. We stayed two hours and fifteen minutes at the Hoh Rain Forest, and then decided it was time to give up our precious parking spot to another visitor.

It was a six-mile drive to get back to the point where they stop traffic and let one car in as one car leaves. When we left, we counted fifty cars waiting in line at 10:45. From here, it's another twelve miles to get back to Highway 101. We met another 90 cars on that drive. They will definitely be stopped at the "two hour wait" sign by the time they arrive. Another thing we learned is that the Hoh Rain Forest Campground would be much closer to the hiking. But campers have to wait in this same line any time they want to come back to their camp site. We didn't relish the idea of waiting two hours to pop into our trailer for lunch in the middle of the day, so that's why we didn't stay at Hoh Campground.

Now back on the 101 highway that encircles the national park, we had to drive 14 (slow) miles to get to our next attraction of the day--Ruby Beach. The distance between our two attractions was just 32 miles, but it took another hour to drive that distance. The good news was that a new larger parking area for this popular beach had recently been completed, and we found empty spots even in the middle of the day. That's why we chose to go to Hoh Rainforest first.

After a hike down a steep trail, visitors must cross a maze of bleached driftwood logs to get to the beach. Some of these logs were as big as whole trees, and crawling up and over them was hard. This was definitely not a handicap-accessible beach.

But it was beautiful! It was littered with sea stacks--the local name for the huge boulders lying in or near the water. Denisa was standing in a sea stack with an arch.

That arch makes a nice frame for the Pacific Ocean behind it.

We found another arch closer to the ocean edge, and Mark took his turn for a picture framed by an arch.

But he was startled when a rogue wave brought that ocean up through that seemingly dry arch. Denisa got a late picture of the drenching he "enjoyed".

Ruby Beach reminds us of the sea stacks and beaches we loved in our first trip to the Oregon coast. Some of the stacks were as big as cruise ships. You can see Mark's red shirt in the cave entrance to another larger sea stack.

Low tide was at 8:30 this morning, so the tide was definitely coming in by the time we arrived. We would have loved to be at Ruby Beach at low tide to find the sea stars clinging to the bottom of these sea stacks. But we had to make a choice this morning based on parking options.

After our long beach walk on the rocks last night, we were smarter this day. We wore our tennis shoes to navigate a long walk on Ruby Beach. Our legs were suffering from shin splints because of the way we walked in the shifting beach sand. As we added another couple of tough miles walking on these beach rocks, our feet were beginning to hate us.

The fog at the coast gave a mystical look to the coast line as we walked further up the beach. We didn't find any sea shells or sand dollars on Ruby Beach.

This was such a beautiful place, and we were blessed by another blue-sky day. We heard that two days in a row was quite uncommon here in the Pacific Northwest. We thought we should move to Washington and just live on the beach. But we're afraid that the only thing we could afford to live in might be the make-shift drift wood lean-tos.

Yep, this was probably the closest thing we'll ever have to a beach house.

It was another tricky walk over more driftwood to get back out of Ruby Beach. We were tired from our hikes, but it was hard to leave when the weather and the scenery was so beautiful.

We had to drive back through the town of Forks, Washington, on our hour-long drive back to the campground. We stopped by the local grocery store to buy some thick pork chops and fresh vegetables. It was unusually hot in Forks--94 degrees this afternoon. One local told us that few houses in Forks have air-conditioning because they rarely need it. Today was one of those rare occasions. We've been on the road for well over a month, and we hadn't gotten out the cast iron griddle that we have toted half-way across the country. But today Mark grilled a feast of fried potatoes, pork chops, grilled broccoli and carrots. We paired that with fresh cantaloupe, and ate on the picnic table with trees towering over us. 

While it was hot in town, we were totally shaded and only a mile from the ocean at our campground. So we were pleasantly cool.  Our solar panels only made 5 amps this day, a record low amount because of our totally shaded spot. But after two days, we still had 85% battery charge. We also had plenty of water on board for showers in this primitive campground (where our tenting neighbors were really roughing it). We were blessed!

Long and Very Full First Day in Olympic National Park - Quinault to Rialto Beach

We left our full-hook-up site campground and headed towards a long stretch of no hook-up campground days in the often-cloudy Pacific Northwest. This area is known for cloudy and rainy weather, and we hoped our solar panels were up for it! But we were surprised to see beautiful blue skies as we headed north up Highway 101 towards the entrance of Olympic National Park. We found out the 101 highway was "ripply" and a little hard to drive with a trailer. We also found that  there was no big national park visitor center handing out maps and information. We were mainly on our own to figure out where to stop and how to see this vast national park, so we were glad that we had a plan. We visited here on a fast trip in 2017, so we were prepared to spend more time at a slower pace for this visit.

Our first stop was at the Quinault Lodge. The green yard behind the lodge overlooks Lake Quinault, and a bright array of kayaks that can be rented for a spin on the lake.

The lodge offers historic old rooms on this southern border of the national park. This section was less visited than the northern sections, and we had no problems finding a parking place that would fit the pickup and trailer. But we didn't find any visitor center or ranger station for advice or maps.

We had already researched the hiking possibilities, and picked out the Falls Creek and Quinault Loop Trail. We headed into the rain forest at the trail head.

On our way, we paused by a Redwood Tree near the lodge. We love the tall Redwoods, but didn't get to stop at any of the Redwood forests in California. So it seemed like we found an old friend when we found this one.

We stopped by Cascade Falls, which was a little underwhelming.

But we loved the old growth trees dwarfing everything and everyone around them. Can you see Denisa at the bottom of the trunk?

The rain forest was so dense that this hike was dark and spooky at times--even in the middle of a sunny day.

The old logs have come back to life as it looks like they have grown hair and sprouted faces made of tree fungi.

After a 2.7 mile loop, we headed back to the pickup in the now crowded parking lot. That's where we found the biggest and purplest (is that a word?!?) hydrangea ever! The size of a dinner plate, it's an example of how big something can get when it gets lots of water.

Our next stop was just a mile down the road. But the crowds had arrived, and we had a very hard time finding a parking place big enough for the pickup and trailer. After the 0.6-mile hike, we got to see the world's largest sitka spruce. This tree is 191 feet tall and 59 feet in circumference. In this valley they also host the world's largest western red cedar, Douglas fir, and mountain hemlock tree. Things grow this well when watered with the 13 feet of rain they average per year. We're used to measuring rain down to the hundredth of an inch, and here they measure it in feet. 

After our stop in Quinault, we headed further north on highway 101. It's another two hour's drive to our campground here inside Olympic National Park, so we tried to do some sight-seeing on the way so we didn't have to come back to this southern section. We passed the Kalaloch Beaches. The only parking was in small pull-outs right along the 101. With the trailer in tow, we couldn't fit into the parking at beach 1 or beach 2, but we snagged a place at beach 3. Our pickup and trailer would fit here! As we looked down on the beach, we were surprised that 64 degrees at the highway level felt hot.

We hiked down the steep path to the beach, and the cold wind off the water suddenly made it feel chilly. It's amazing how a few feet in elevation and the wind off the water can change the temperature.

The tide was rising as we took a walk down Kolaloch's Beach 3. Mark loves to scramble on rocks--even when the increasingly high ocean water was splashing all around them. 

He was soon surrounded as the water continued to rise around his perch on the rocks.

It looked like he was conducting the waves as they splashed against the rocks that were high and dry just moments ago.

Denisa obviously has a much more risk-averse personality. She preferred to walk on the beach far from the approaching tide.

If she scrambled on the rocks, you could be sure that the rocks were far from the incoming water's edge.

We loved these weathered old sea rocks on this beautiful blue-sky day. We saw only two other people on this entire stretch of beautiful beach. We had wandered onto more of God's wonders!

As we climbed out of beach 3, we met a local coming down the steep path. He was marveling at the unusual weather. He told us that this beach was usually cold, cloudy, and rainy. It was a rare treat to see blue skies here in this section of the Pacific Northwest. We have been blessed!

We continued north on Highway 101 through Olympic National Park. The other beach parking areas were too congested for trailer parking so we kept driving. Actually, we stopped frequently, but it wasn't for beaching. It was because of the continued construction on this section of the highway. We went through several more sections of one-lane highway that was monitored by automatic stop lights. That made our drive last longer. After that cool beach stop, we finally pulled into the town of Forks, Washington. Best known for hosting the "Twilight" trilogy of books, today it was unusually hot at 91 degrees. We haven't seen temperatures that hot since the second stop of this trip over a month ago.

At Forks, Washington, we left Highway 101. We were headed to Mora Campground, that was ten miles off the main loop road that encircles Olympic National Park. We headed ten miles straight west, towards the Pacific Ocean. We got set up in site #43 in Loop C.

We snagged this spot inside the national park 14 days ago when they opened up Loop C reservations at 7 a.m. All those spots were filled by 7:01 a.m. We played the national park campground game and won this time and got a great spot. We were a little worried about how our solar could charge our battery under the shade of these big beautiful trees for our three-night stay. We are also far from any telephone signal, but we found we could borrow some free wifi from the Three Rivers Cafe just four miles away. We also made a stop at the ranger station at the entrance of the campground to finally get a national park map and a little advice.

We got our bikes out for a ride around the three loops that make up Mora Campground. After studying the layout of the campground on-line so we would know which site would be best for our trailer, it was interesting to see them for ourselves. We probably could have been happy with any of the campsites now that we have a tiny trailer. We also hiked the only trail in this section of the national park--the 2.4-mile James Pond trail.

The advice from the ranger included the tide schedule. While Mora Campground is ten miles off the 101 highway, it is close to some beautiful beaches. After a full day of sight-seeing, we headed to one of the most popular beaches at 6:30 p.m.

We chose this time for a combination sunset stroll and low tide exploration walk. We had on our jackets in August because it was a little nippy on Rialto Beach in the evening. It was also a popular place and time to be here. We found the large parking lot full, and we followed the mile-long line of hundreds of other hikers on the beach.

We were all heading to the "Hole-in-the-Wall" and its adjoining sea stacks. You can only stand where Denisa is under that hole at low tide.

After waiting in a bit of a line of tourists, we finally got a picture without the crowds. It was an unusually clear blue sky that enabled us to see the sea stacks far out in the ocean framed by the hole.

A picture from the other direction shows the forest that marches up the mountain behind the beach.

It was a slippery walk across the crusty rocks to get to the hole in the wall. But when we stopped to see the details, we saw the uncovered sea stars waiting for the end of low tide.

This sea anemone was still happy to be soaked in salt water, with its green fingers unfurled.

We couldn't decide if we liked the purple sea stars . . .

or the orange sea stars the best. We're also not sure what the difference is, because they usually hang out together.

The sun was slanting across the beach as we approached the golden hour on Rialto Beach.

We had hurried past Split Rock in our haste to get to the Hole in the Wall at the lowest tide. But on our way back we had time to stop for pictures and exploring the tide pools here. That's Mark standing between the splits of Split Rock.

As it got later, the crowds got smaller. We wore our crocs for this beach walk. As we walked 3.75 miles on this rocky--then sandy--beach we decided that crocs weren't our best decision. Tennis shoes would have been better on the rocky tide pool areas too. But for the softest section we left barefoot prints in the sand.

The sun was low in the sky as we captured it in the split of Split Rocks from a different angle.

We got to see the sun set on the west coast on our first day at Olympic National Park.

Besides going to our son's wedding, visiting this national park was a main destination for this summer. It's good to have made it to one more destination.

We stayed on the beach until 9:00, and the parking lot was still crowded when we left. We were just glad that we had only a two mile drive back to our trailer at Mora Campground in the dark. It's been a long and very full first day in Olympic National Park!