Sometimes you just don’t want to struggle up another hill. Sometimes you’re tired of pitting out your shirts and outer layers just for a peek at a peak. Sometimes you just want take a blissful stroll through enchanted rainforest and along a lazy but beautiful river and burn your calories by collecting miles.
Highlights: The park’s most famous rainforest, its chummiest river, critters big and small, streams and waterfalls.
Travel Time (from Urban Centers to Park/Trailhead): 3 ½ hours from Tacoma, 4 minutes 20 minutes from Seattle, 4 ½ hours from Portland.
Nearby Supplies and Gas: Forks (watch for vampires).
Difficulty: There’s one very short stretch when poles may be of assistance for some, but it’s not worth hauling them out for such a tiny fraction of the hike.
Distance: 10.6 miles (out and back).
Entrance Fees: $20 per vehicle, $7 for individuals (walk, bike, etc.), various passes.
Getting There: If you have a choice (ie, coming from Seattle), heading around Olympia to US 101 North takes you by Lake Quinault, Kalaloch and the beaches; heading south on US 101 will take you through Port Angeles, past Lake Crescent and Forks. Either way, head to Upper Hoh Road, 18 miles long, ending in the parking lot by the visitor center, which is seasonally open. Trailheads are just beyond.
Calling any hike that breaks the 10-mile barrier “easy” is a little asinine, but you’d be tempted to do so with this one. You’ll feel the almost 500 feet in elevation gain because almost all of it comes during one short stretch. By then, you’ll be so distracted and mesmerized by all that you’ve witnessed, it barely will matter.
This hike begins in the Hall of Mosses, for goodness sake. And from there the hits just keep on coming. The initial three-quarters mile is jammed with chattering Douglas Squirrels, jack-hammering woodpeckers and maybe even some of the park’s famed Roosevelt Elk. The first mile ends with the first clear view of the Hoh River, easy, true and blue, and in places shallow enough for carefree wading.
Vine Maple and Sword Fern along the Hoh River.
Fall colors intermingle with the year-round moss in the Hoh Rainforest.
Also nearby is a fleeting view of snowcapped Mount Tom. Three miles in is my favorite stretch. First, you’re looking down into the Hoh, then will pass through a series of charming streams and cascades. Look upstream into the rainforest and you’ll see a couple streams descend from healthy, picturesque waterfalls.
Not long after the so-called “climb,” you’re not far from Five-Mile Island, formed by river channels. It’s highly recommended to time your arrival around lunchtime. It’s easy to pass time by the river, munching and peeping views far into the Hoh River Valley.
This is a year-round hike that offers a lot of nature’s bounty, but the main event, of course, is rolling through grand old growth and fern and twinflower-sprinkled ground carpeted with moss so downy looking, you might be tempted to bed down for a snooze. I made this hike during the fall and was dazzled by the interplay of mossy big timber and the glowing, turned leaves of deciduous trees. Needless to say, no naps were required that day.
Based in Seattle, Wash., Glenn Nelson is the founder of The Trail Posse, which regularly covers race, diversity and inclusion in the outdoors. He also is a founding member and on the steering committee of the Next 100 Coalition, a national alliance of civil rights, environmental and community groups advocating for more inclusive management of public lands. Nelson has won several national awards for his writing, photography and Web publishing, including three first-place honors from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for his column on race for Crosscut and Outstanding Beat Reporting (Race, Inclusion and Environmental Justice) from the Society of Environmental Journalists. A graduate of Seattle University and Columbia University, he was born in Japan and started his career at The Seattle Times. He later founded HoopGurlz (now at ESPN), which covered girl’s basketball and college prospects nationally, and helped found Scout.com, a network of sports websites. Nelson is the primary author of a teen book about the NBA, has been published in numerous magazines and book collections, had his photographic work appear at the Smithsonian, and has been profiled by NPR. He also serves on the boards of Audubon Washington, Spectrum Dance Theater, as well as the Washington Governor's advisory committee on outdoor recreation, the advisory committee for the Japanese American Remembrance Trail, and the Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage task force.
