Olympic National Park- Rain Forest Areas

Having hiked some in the rain forest areas of Olympic National Park, I can actually understand how people believe that Big Foot exists.  The rain forests are so thick and these massive trees are just covered with this delicate moss draped over the limbs.  You just feel lost in an other world.

We did a few of the rain forest  hikes: Marymere Falls, most of Barnes Creek Trail, Hall of Mosses, and the bike to Beach 2 in La Push (I’m going to save the hike to La Push 2 for my coastline post, though).

The Hall of Mosses Trail is located in the Hoh Rainforest section of Olympic National Park.  The drive through the rain forest is absolutely spectacular.  You feel like you’re lost in this forest and it feels like everything around you is alive.  The forest is filled with the riches shades of green I’ve ever seen in my life.  There are shades ranging from deep green to lime green, with shades I’ve never seen between!  I had to literally peel my camera away from my face because I was taking 8 million pictures of trees, and just needed to take it in while I was there.  The actual trail is a really easy hike, and is about a one mile loop.  It was the most congested hike that we did in Olympic, and also my least favorite of all the trails we did.  I enjoyed the drive to the trailhead more than I enjoyed the actual hike.  There is another, longer trail up there that we didn’t do, that I’m sure was really great.

The Merrymere Falls trail was one of my favorites- we loved it so much we did it twice!  You catch the trailhead by Crescent Lake (which is this huge lake that you drive alongside to get there).   It’s unreal how peaceful it is to hike in the forest- it’s so quiet and the trees back there are the same unreal shades of green, but it’s not nearly as busy.  We were at about 9 a.m. both times and passed around 3 people each time.  The trail runs along Barnes Creek and when you get up to the falls you can’t help but sit in awe of all this amazing nature around you.  The water crashes down in a triangular shape and then branches off and flows down a path.  It’s a great view, and a great place for some solitude.  We hiked back down to where the Barnes Creek Trail branches off and we followed it down the Creek for a ways and then turned around to head back into Seattle to pick my brother up.

The rainforest is a really unique part of the United States; it’s absolutely beautiful, and it is not to be missed.

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