Day 5

After spending day 4 relatively close to our home away from home, we decided to spend day 5 on the west side of the park. We drove to Hoh Rain Forest first and wouldn't you know it, it was bright and sunny which did nothing for the "rainforestiness" of the place. There was moss, and big trees, and mosquitoes, and because we stayed relatively close to the visitor's center, lots and lots of people. I'm beginning to think (duh, Robin) that we need to venture further away from the well-trodden tourist path to get something significant out of the National Parks' main attractions.

In our defense, I'm still taking it easy on my back so I'm not too keen to head out on a hike longer than 2 miles one way. We didn't do anything nearly that long at Hoh and I suspect a couple of miles would feel like a couple of dozen miles in terms of crowds. Back at the car, we decided to head to Forks, a required stop for anyone who has read (and/or watched) anything Twlight-related.

I can hear C, now - "Oh, for the sake of everything sacred to a pre-teen, please tell the people the spastic look on my face was COMPLETELY sarcastic!"

My wrap-up of the Forks experience? Funky little town -not overwhelmingly good or bad. One thing's for sure, somebody is getting really, really rich on 3XL "Team Jacob" and "Team Edward" t-shirts. I personally enjoy the books and movies but the hype is a little outta hand. I'm happy the region has made $$ on the hysteria. Having rushed through Hoh and Forks, we decided to head out to La Push and some National Park beaches.

The rocky beach at the La Push marina was pretty cool (and cold - what was a hot, sunny day a few miles inland quickly changed as we headed closer to the water). R enjoyed skipping rocks and we all liked the sound of rocks clacking together as the waves advanced and retreated. We were all a little worn out at this point but we decided to hike out to one of the more remote beaches. We chose Third Beach and it was worth every single cold, rainy step.

This was more what we had in mind when we talked about visiting the rain forest. We spent much of the hike examining big ol' banana slugs although A had to stop occasionally to hold up trees and other important "assistant to nature" kinds of tasks. When we rounded the last bend of the ridiculously beautiful hike, we were blown away by the stunning beach ahead of us.

I could have stayed for hours and hours (and I was really jealous of the people setting up camp on the one sliver of high ground on the beach. We decided we couldn't stay too long (although we spent a couple of hours, I think) because our path back to the trailhead was going to be cut off by the incoming (or so we thought - turns out there was a tide table at the trailhead and we actually hit the beach as the tide was going out) tide.

We all agreed that this hike and the time we spent on the beach were the highlight of the trip. If I had more of a tendency towards the "new agey" I would say that I think I must have lived around here in a past life. Since I tend to be a little more matter of fact-ish, however, I'll just say that I love me some NW beaches - the rockier, overcastier, and rainier (to a point) the better. Next trip, I think we'll concentrate our vacation in this western side of the park (if I get to set the itinerary, that is - K appreciates the mountains quite a lot, too).

We had an uneventful drive home and a great view of Lake Crescent along the way. We all slept well that night (after watching some American Pickers and eating popcorn).