South Beach and Olympic National Park--August 4, 2008

South Beach Campground was quite a find. The campground overlooks the Pacific Ocean. There are no hookups, just a picnic table and a fire pit for each site. We were lucky enough to pull in and get this great site. Here is a view of the campground from the beach. My view of Washington beaches has changed--this one had large driftwood and rocks on the beach.Monday we went sightseeing. Our first stop was at a big cedar tree. The tree is no longer living, but the top has many other trees growing from it!
Our next stop was the Hoh Rainforest. The first parking lot we saw was filled, but we soon found out that it was for hikers making the overnight trip to Blue Glacier (about 19 miles).
There were two trails that meandered through the rainforest. The first took us over Taft Creek. The water was so clear you couldn't tell what was underwater and what wasn't! The moss hanging from the tree was out of the water, everything else was underwater!

We hiked through the Mossy garden which had old growth. The area near Hoh River had newer growth--mostly grasses and ferns with young trees. We hiked the Rainforest Trail and had to walk between these two downed trees!

From the rainforest we drove north to Forks and then we drove back to our campground. The sunset was fantastic--but still chilly outside.

Tuesday we moved north to Clallam Bay.