My original intent in working my way around the OP NP (Olympic Peninsula National Park) was to make South Beach Campground my first stop.  Several people suggested it was a “must do” because of its proximity to the beach.  But I take one look at the RVs lined up bumper to bumper, jockeying for beachside real estate and realize I am still traumatized by Camp Agoraphobia.   I just can’t do it.   So I keep driving toward my next planned stop, Mora Campground.  At least I know there is a good chance of tree-enforced space there.

As I so often do, I arrive late in the evening after the work day.   I have once again taken two days off to explore the massive, mutti-faceted 1,441 acre National Park, and ponder the idea of writing a Travel Guide, “How to Tour the United States in a Weekend.”

The very friendly Park Host meets me in the road and says “I have 10 spaces available tonight.  Only two of ’em will fit your size rig.  You’d better get in one of them fast.”   I choose the pull through, and she holds up traffic so I can get my rig in with the door facing the trees, away from the road.  She stops back by and remarks how fortunate I am to have landed that spot, as they fill up just about every night.

I know the Team Lazy Daze Caravan; Jim and Gayle, their friends Chuck and Carla from Iowa, Debbie, and Kimbopolo are nearby and heading this way tomorrow, so I ask her about saving spots.  But that’s four more rigs.  She hands me some extra envelopes and gives me some pointers, but adds “It’ll be tough.  Tell them to get here EARLY!  Tomorrow is Thursday, and once people get here, they usually don’t move again until Sunday.”

The next morning it is uncanny how everyone around me starts packing up, one by one, leaving the entire loop around me empty.  Before long, the caravan arrives, and the loop is filled with familiar voices and laughter.   I soon learn that Karen from Back Porch View has pulled into the loop as well.  It’s going to be a fun weekend, I can tell already!

We are six rigs in the A Loop…poor tent campers!

Carla, Kim, Gayle, Jim, Debbie, Chuck, and Karen…what a happy hour (or four!) it was!

The thing I enjoy about traveling with this group is there is companionship when you want it, but no one thinks it “odd” if you go your own way and do your own thing.   Which is just what I do the first day they arrive.   Those who wanted to see the Hoh Rainforest had already done so, so I take off on my own for the day to “Hike the Hoh.”

I fool around the campground and get a late start, which leaves me little time to do much beyond the two “interpretive loops” near the Visitor’s Center, as it is an hour’s drive back to the forest from Mora.  So I settle on “Hall of the Mosses,” and the “Spruce Nature Trail” which loops back along the Hoh River.

Looks more like the rain forest in Texas!

July is definitely the month to visit if you don’t like rain in the rain forest.

I never thought I would find myself complaining about lack of rain in Washington.  In fact, I bought a new rain jacket before I ever arrived in the state, thinking it would rain the entire time I was here.  But in of the entire month I have been here, it has rained only two days.   Somehow, in a rain forest, a brilliant, borderline hot sunny day just doesn’t feel right.   This is one time when I think I would have enjoyed it more on a brooding, misty, soggy day.

Two opposing trees lock knees…

Perhaps a little downpour would have also kept some of the Loud Families off the trail.  It was nothing short of Disneyland this day, as I seemed to end up in the middle of families, no matter how fast or slow I walked.  The kids would run head of me, leaving me in between them and the parents,  until the parents would begin to shout, “GIRLS! GIRLS!!!  Don’t get too far ahead!”  I couldn’t seem to walk fast enough to get ahead of the running kids, but if I slowed down, they would stop for family portraits while coaxing their kids into about 25 different poses around the trees.

Moss-filled stream

The Hoh Rainforest contains some of the largest specimens of Sitka Spruce, Douglas Fir, western hemlock, red cedar and red alder.

So I would be less than honest if I didn’t admit to being a teensy bit disappointed in my hike in the Hoh.  It was beautiful, but not what I had imagined for a “rainforest.”  More like a mossy grove of trees alongside a small river…not exactly the Amazon. (Favorite quote from Jim:  “Take a picture of these trees here in the campground and save yourself some gas.”)

Large downed trees provide nutrients and moisture to seedlings, which grow to the ground like stilts around the dead “nurse log.”

The Hoh River

Mora’s greatest asset is definitely Rialto Beach, just a short 1.5 miles from the campground.   I enjoy the many moods of Rialto, from closely clinging fog, to gorgeous golden sunsets.  

The giant craggy sea stacks with the eerily thick and dark, chilly forest as a backdrop make it the perfect setting for “vampires,” even if I didn’t know the Twilight series was filmed here.   It feels like a sea coast with a dark side…

Looks like vampires could emerge from this forest at twilight, even without the marketing.

At the far end of the beach is the “Hole in the Wall,” a tempting destination that must be timed to the tides.  Too early and you risk a heavy fog.  Too late and you can’t get there from here, as “the hole” is only accessible at the lowest of tides.  So it takes a bit of planning.

Hike to “Hole in the Wall” must be done at low tide.

I meet up with Karen and granddaughter Hailey under the arch.  We get there just in time before the fog starts to roll in, blanketing my mood along with Hole in the Wall, dashing our hopes for photo opportunities against the brilliant blue backdrop we know is there just beyond the veil.

Trail goes up and over….taken from the “saddle.”

We share a pensive, conversation-filled walk back along the beach as the billowy white wisps of fog creep in along with the tide…

Hailey…Onward, through the fog!