Day Three – Hoh Rainforest and Sol Duc Hotsprings

Hoh Rainforest

Next morning is here already. Gotta go!! Quick breakfast and down the road to the Hoh Rainforest. We got going so early we had to wait for the Ranger Information office to open. We decided to skip the nature walk

(we actually saw a bit of it anyway waiting for the Ranger to get there) and

Hoh rainforest

hike up into the valley following the river. The giant trees , ferns, mosses seem to have been here since there were dinosaurs. We had a beautiful walk up the valley and decided to turn around after exploring a stream and waterfall . We headed back to the car and drove on up to the north side of the peninsula and up yet another beautiful valley. We arrived at the Sol Duc hotsprings. The little cabins in the open valley below the hot springs would be unpleasantly hot in another location. Here the temperature is seldom hot enough to be oppressive. The cabins are not luxurious, but are quite comfortable.

Sol Duc Hotsprings

We tried out the huge hot springs pools and with the mixture of visitors it seemed more like we were in Eastern Europe than Western Washington.

It was a hot day so the hot springs really weren’t as attractive as they might be in the usual cool weather. We didn’t spend too much time with them. When we went to dinner in the lodge the dining room had no air

conditioning and was stifling. There were tables outside the restaurant for the snack bar at the hot springs. Apparently, they have never used the outside before, but we sold them on the idea. The waitress was happy to get to breath fresh air a bit . We tried not to gloat that everyone else was still inside sweating. They finally started putting a few people out with us and we had a pleasant conversation with the neighboring table, while shooing a squirrel out of the trash. This is our last night on the peninsula.