Heather & Sean's RV Adventures: West Coast/Hoh Rain Forest/Olympic NP/Forks, WA

May 7: Travel day from Mossyrock Park, WA to undisclosed location near Hoh Rainforest. We got packed up and headed out unsure if our undisclosed destination could handle our extremely heavy home on wheels, but nonetheless, onward we pushed through the forested roads. We had to stop for provisions and the only large town on the way being Aberdeen. Personally, Sean and I hate shopping at Walmart, but it unfortunately is a one stop shop. After putting our bounty away, we were back on the road. We knew we were getting closer when the forested roads broke away to reveal the Pacific Ocean view. Shortly, we had arrived and unhooked the truck to scope out the area to determine if we were brave enough to attempt parking the motorhome at the undisclosed location. We quickly find out that our fears are unfounded and the area was relatively unoccupied and safe to cross. Sean pulled in to an area and we were now the temporary owners of a strip of riverbed on the Hoh River! Unbeatable views, waterfront access, no neighbors, and quiet! We got our patio set up and took the pups for a walk and to play in the river. They had a blast in the water! Before we knew it was time to prepare dinner. Once we were done eating and the pups played out, we loaded up in the truck to locate a place to dispose our trash (the place we are staying doesn't have trash services). We try multiple roads and random campgrounds, but none offered trash disposal for the public. Running out of daylight, we almost give up, but decide to try one more area - Ruby Beach. Surely, there is a trash can there. There definitely was a trash can, but what weren't prepared for is the absolutely break-taking view it would offer and us being there at the perfect time to catch the sunset! We trekked down the trail that descended to a driftwood littered black sand beach and had the best time exploring all the rocks and coves around there. Although you could see the sunset, it was raining on us at the beach and the wind was bitterly cold despite us wearing jackets. We found us a driftwood log after combing the beach and sat to watch the sunset.

Drone pic of our camping spot.

Rainbow at Ruby Beach

Panoramic view of ocean and beach.

May 8: We head out today to explore the town of Forks, WA and track down a trail that Sean found online. Are there any Twilight Series fans?? Yes, we are in the Forks that Stephanie Myer wrote about in her book series, and this town is sure proud to boast about the books and movies. There is memorabilia everywhere you turn! We tracked down a couple of the movie sites, including the town welcome sign, Swan house, the outfitter store, and Bella's truck. Bella's truck was at the town visitors center, so we ended up wandering inside and gathering some information on the area. We asked a question about Sean's trail that he wanted to go to later, and someone behind us said "we were there this morning and there's no cell service." I look over and guess who I saw!!!! Cane lady from Mt. Rainier!!! What a coincidence, LOL! We go on about our business and head to the truck having a good laugh how cane lady is everywhere we go now and has already been everywhere we want to go. We make our way down the road and always keep our eyes open for fresh eggs that people are selling from home, but no luck. Our destination is Third Beach Trailhead, which leads you down to the beach, but looking South you find a waterfall falling into the ocean. We hike through the thick rainforest and before you know it, you can smell the salty air and hear the beach. We descend to an opening in the trees and can see the ocean and I stop to see if there are any signs of whales. Shortly after scanning the water, I see puffs from the water! Whales!!! Sean hurries to ready his drone hoping to get a video of the action, I get out the binoculars and try to guide Sean to the correct area. Turns out the whales were farther than he could reach with the drone (more that 7000 feet from our location), but he was able to capture a couple of seals playing, so we watched the whales come up for air and take deep dives that show off their tales. We continued on to the beach and locate the waterfall, but quickly find that you can't get very close due to the surf. Luckily there is an overland trail (which later we find out is called Scott's Bluff Trail and turns in to Pacific NW Trail). Little did we know that we would be going through an obstacle course to view the source of the waterfall, Scott's Creek. We were exhausted by the time we made it back to the truck. We had no way to know how long it would take us on this hike and we left our lunch in the truck not knowing it would take us well into the afternoon to complete the journey. We ate our lunch anyway, and were soon back on the road to the motorhome.

The Swan Residence in the Twilight movies.

Bella's truck used in the movies located in front of the Visitors Center. Rusting to pieces now.

A visual measurement of the yearly rainfall total.

Dr. Cullen's white coat, signed by actor.

One pin from Littlefield. I added the green pin next to the pink one (long pins).

Another iconic place from the movies.

Third Beach Trailhead.

Definitely in the rainforest, lots of mud.

Two seals playing in the distance, Sean captured footage on his drone.

Third Beach, you can faintly see the waterfall at this point.

Realizing we can't get to the waterfall because of the surf, this was between high & low tide.

First ladder. There were at least 4 of these ladders on this part of the Scott's Bluff Trail.

Sean braved the edge of the cliff for a view of the waterfall straight down. Made me very nervous!

Heading back through all the ladders.

May 9: The Hoh Rain Forest access road had been closed since 2024 due to a devastating washout and has been reopened May 8th with a visit from the Governor Bob Ferguson for a ribbon cutting ceremony. We decided to skip all the fanfare and visit the next day to hopefully let the crowd settle a little. Well... there were still a lot of people, and the Visitors Center was closed! How are you going to have a grand reopening of a place and have the Visitors Center closed??? How does that make sense? Still upset about that one. We proceed to explore the trails, which seem to be very popular judging with how many people are present. We start with Hall of Mosses, then we encounter a whole gaggle of people and figure out they are tour group and are transfixed by a squirrel in the trees. Everyone had to get their picture of the squirrel, they forgot how to be polite when it comes to not blocking the trail. We weave our way through the tour group and immediately get the "ick" feeling. This isn't fun for us anymore, so we leave. We decided our time will be better spent at Rialto Beach and exploring the tide pools there, so we head that way. Once there we find a picnic table and eat a quick lunch. It was SO cold! The wind coming across from the ocean was bitter and unforgiving, but wee figured we would warm up walking on the beach. We found this beach to be more rocky than Ruby Beach. We happened upon a large rocky area with tide pools and had so much fun finding all the creatures that inhabited them. There was mostly anemones that were light pastel green, some that were white and later we found neon pink ones. We have no idea what these creatures eat, but we tried to feed one a barnacle and it seemed to accept it, lol. We eventually continued on and found a sea-star clinging to a rock face. We found our way to "Hole in the rock" and explored more tide pools there, which had small fish and hermit crabs along with the anemones. Once we had our fun, we headed back across the beach and enjoyed the sounds and views of the coastline.

The point of the prior washout (only road to Hoh Rain Forest)

Hall of mosses trail

Dead tree is considered a "nurse tree" for others.

Oh look! A squirrel! LOL

Closed Visitors Center...

Hummingbird at our picnic area.

Rialto Beach. Storm surge & tsunamis have eaten away the coastline.

Anemones!

Sea Star (orange)

Made it to Hole in the Rock

Home sweet home.

May 10: Today is hot springs day! Woohoo! We head over to Sol Duc Hot Springs and spend our 1.5 hours soaking in crystal clear hot water between 100 to 105 degrees, and Sean daring the 65 degree pool occasionally. He has a nifty feature on his watch that will display the water temperature. After relaxing and with our time being up, we decided we should eat before heading out for our hike to Sol Duc Falls. We ate at the Hot Springs restaurant and it started raining while we were eating on the covered patio. We watched the panicked happenings in the hot springs area where people were hurriedly grabbing their items and moving to a covered spot. Sean made the remark,"don't get wet at the hot springs". Lol! We finish up and luckily it stops raining, and head out to the trailhead. At the falls, we hear someone say "Go Red Raiders!" He sees my Texas Tech hat and we spend a moment talking with him. We explore the falls, which is shorter than ones in the recent past that we have seen, but is mighty with lots of water coming down the river. Once back to the truck, Sean mentions wanting to get a view of Juan de Fuca Straight to see if there are any large ships. At first we didn't spot anything, but then we saw one, then another and another. Sean got on a vessel tracker app that he downloaded just for this occasion and we were looking up where these ships left and where they are headed. At this point, it was getting quite late and we headed for home.