RAINFOREST RIVERS AND BEACHES

We spent three nights camped at the hot springs along the Sol Duc River. The RV campground was just a parking lot but the hiking and hot springs were the draw here. We enjoyed the six mile loop to the falls.

The trail by the falls was "well traveled" with lots of exspoed roots and rocks but the back half of the trail was less used and quite beautiful.

The river came close to our campsite and every night we sat on this rock and watched as the bats feasted on newly hatched insects. It was amazing to see several bats performing an acrobatic ballet-swerving around and sometimes coming quite close to us. Other times they would dip down and seem to skim the water.

The Sol Duc is a beautiful river and we encountered several stretches of it as we made our way around the Olympic Park.

As we made our way to the Hoh Rainforest, we encountered some of the warmest and most humid weather to date. This a popular stop with easy access to the largest temperate rain forest in the US. The Hoh River, fed by glacial melt from Mt Olympus, was an easy walk from the visitor center.

The heat drove us to the coast in the cool breezes coming off the Pacific. The first beach we visited was Ruby Beach. It was at this rocky beach where we saw our first sea stacks.

There is a lot of driftwood on the beach and people make some very clever shade structures.

Yoga too!!

Our favorite beach was Second Beach near La Push. This beach is sandy and easy to walk. We were sorry we hadn't brought our back packing gear for an overnight on the beach. Next time.

We moved our camp over to Mora in the National Forest to be near Rialto Beach. This stoney beach setting was used in the "Twilight" series.

That's all for now, folks!!!