Karen made her morning coffee in the room and then discovered there was no cream available. Our room was far enough from the main lodge (and with no in-room telephone and no cell service there was no quick way to contact the lodge) that she decided to go without the cream. We were in a hurry to check out of our room and when the desk clerk learned of the cream situation, she ‘cheerfully’ said she’d have made some available at the desk if Karen had only walked down there! As consolation, Karen got some free coffee from the main lobby. We decided that we won’t let that happen again.
After a quick stop for donuts and yogurt at a little store in Beaver, we drove west until we reached the place where the Quillayute River empties into the Pacific Ocean. We visited both Rialto Beach and La Push First Beach.
Rialto Beach features giant piles of driftwood and a rugged cobblestone beach with crashing waves. We tried to hike north to some sea stacks and arches, but the tide was rising quickly and there’s no safe way to traverse the beach when this is happening.
La Push is also a rugged beach, but it is partially protected by a small harbor. It is part of the Quileute Indian Reservation. We ate a snack here, surrounded by lurking hungry seagulls, and then hit the road back eastward toward Forks.
A couple of days ago, we were in a little town that inspired a book and a series of movies from the 1940’s. Today, we went through the little town of Forks, which inspired books and movies from the early 21st century. It turns out that the author, Stephenie Meyer, of the popular ‘Twilight’ stories used this mysterious part of northwest Washington as the setting for her tales of the undead.
Highway 101 goes south from Forks to the junction of Upper Hoh Road, which goes to the Hoh Rain Forest Ranger Station. Hoh is a Native American word meaning ‘fast moving water’. The road follows the Hoh River for 19 miles up into the rain forest.
At just over 500 feet elevation, the Hoh Rain Forest is a wonderland of ferns, fungus, hanging moss, and gigantic maple, spruce and hemlock trees. Karen made us some sandwiches to eat at the ranger station, and then we started off on a hike into the forest.
The trail was rocky, slick and covered with large exposed tree roots. Even though we had an unusually sunny day, the trees still managed to capture whatever moisture was in the air, so the ground under the tree canopy remained wet. After a couple of miles, Karen gave me the green light to continue hiking while she returned to the parking lot.
My plan was to get to Mineral Springs Falls, which was just under 3 miles from the trailhead, and then circle back to hike the Hall of Moss loop and join up with Karen again. It was about 3:15pm when I took off.
The combination of the rough terrain, my penchant for stopping to take photographs, and the slippery climb up to the base of the waterfall caused me to take longer than I expected. By the time I got back to Karen it was 5:00pm and it was getting dark in the rain forest.
We still had over an hour’s drive to our next stop, Lake Quinault, so we jumped in the car and continued south on Highway 101. Along the way we passed some spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean before we turned eastward through the Quinault Indian Reservation.
Just as it got dark, we pulled into the historic Lake Quinault Lodge on the southern shore of Lake Quinault. Our room is in the main lodge. Just downstairs from us is the rustic lobby and its large fireplace with tall windows facing the lakefront.
We were both tired and hungry and ready to have some dinner in the Roosevelt (as in FDR) Dining room. However, due to a staff shortage, we had to order take-out from the restaurant and then bring it into the dining room/lobby to eat. I brought a bottle of Finnriver Cider in from the car and we had our dinner, then went upstairs for the evening.
As I’m typing these notes, Karen is softly slumbering after spending a vigorous day on the beach and in the forest.
There is no cell service here and the wi-fi looks doubtful. We’ll try to get into the nearby town of Amanda Parks for a better signal sometime tomorrow. Otherwise, we’ll have to wait until we get back to civilization to upload our posts. Until then, here’s to living the rustic life!
NEXT: Exploring Lake Quinault and vicinity
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