Planning a trip to the Hoh Rainforest was a little tricky from a logistics perspective. It’s located in a fairly remote area but somehow the parking fills up very early. So, we stayed in Forks, WA the night before and got an early start. We actually had to wake a kid up (Beckett) for the first time on this trip and we fed them a car breakfast. We drove the hour or so and arrived at roughly 7:30. Luckily there was plenty of parking…so we figured we overdid it and the traffic isn’t as bad as you read about (more on that later…)
We hiked through the .8 mile loop named “Hall of Mosses”. As Brooke shared (from her 1st grade learning) the trees grow moss because the canopy of the forest blocks out the sunlight.
After the Hall of Mosses we drove a few hours to Lake Crescent. As we left the Hoh Rainforest we learned the warnings about parking were 100% accurate. We left around 10 in the morning and the traffic was backed up for miles. The signs on the side of the road put their estimated wait at > 3 hours 😱. This included one cluesless guy who flagged us down and asked why there was such a big delay…he was still >3 hours away from getting in.
The last 30 minutes or so of the drive to Lake Crescent was absolutely beautiful with the turquoise lake sitting at the foot of the mountains. We pulled over for a quick photo and to enjoy the view.
We got lucky again with parking and found a spot and got all packed up. We left for our hike around 12:30. This hike was a 2 mile out and back on a paved path. We were a little nervous about it with Beckett since he’d already hiked a mile in the rainforest. We actually made good progress on our way out and only had to use a few M&Ms as motivation.
We arrived at the tunnel (which marks 1 mile) and we took a small path to the side of it. Roughly 5 minutes down that path landed us at our destination, Devil’s Punchbowl. This is a small cove where the bridge crosses the water and the water is particularly teal/turquoise. It’s also supposedly about 200ft feep despite it being very close to the shore.
We stopped to eat our lunch and watch the brave people jump from the bridge into the cold water. After seeing several people jump in and be fine, I knew I couldn’t leave without trying it. So, I put all my gear down and stripped down to my hiking shorts, climbed onto the bridge (which seems a lot higher on the railing) and jumped off the bridge.
When I jumped I certainly went further into the water then I thought I would. And when I resurfaced I definitely had a bit of shock from the cold water. My body needed a few seconds to catch its breath. I swam over the rock and climbed out. Mission accomplished…I’m still young!
Jaclyn took the video below of me jumping into the water and framed it perfectly so it looks like I jumped from about 1 ft above the water 😂
Following my antics we hiked back. We passed a mother carry a double wide bike stroller/trailer over the rocky single-trail path. She was seriously struggling and I didn’t have the heart to tell her it gets a lot worse.
As we arrived at the tunnel again Brooke wanted to “face her fear” (the tunnel was very dark) so Jaclyn and Brooke ran through it together. We hiked the 1 mile back to the car and invented our new “family super powers”. If we all hold hands then we can run really fast (the things you do to motivate your kids to keep going and not complain lol).
Back in the car we headed for Seattle (or somewhere close). This was probably our biggest hiking day of the trip and it was a success so we were happy. We drove to Kingston, WA, picked up some Dominos for a quick dinner and then caught the ferry to Edmonds. The kids loved the whole ferry experience including the fact that it fits hundreds of cars, that it has a whole cafeteria inside, it’s super windy outside and that it’s surprisingly fast, even though it looks slow.
Our hotel was literally 5 minutes from the end of the ferry so we drove there and settled for the night. Tomorrow we head for Seattle/Canada.
-Jay
P.S. Brooke said me jumping off the bridge was the coolest part of the day (dad points!).
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