Forks Trip Day 15 Hoh Rainforest and Ruby Beach

Abby Weyr Forks Trip Day 15 Wednesday 18 Sep 13

Hoh Rainforest Spruce Trail and Ruby Beach

Had breakfast at the diner associated with Charlie in Twilight. Returned the too small T-shirt to Leppell’s, they have larger size blank T-Shirt and will put the image on it. I can pick up later today or tomorrow. They agreed that the sizes run small for that company.

Plan is to hike the Spruce Trail in Hoh Rainforest today and then to Ruby Beach. Just before turning off of 101 realized I’d left water bottles in room…another forgetful moment. Stopped at Peak 6 store and bought some water. Managed not to look around the store again. Weather was clearing up, going to be a good sunny day.

The Spruce Trail hike is 1.2 miles and fairly flat. It starts off in older forest area by visitor center. Trees similar to what saw on Saturday on Hall of Mosses trail. As go along the path drops down a little to what was the river bed. The area changes from old shade loving plants to younger forest life. Start seeing white barked trees, grass and ferns. The path goes to the river and follows it for a little ways before heading back to the visitor center. It crosses over a spring fed creek with really clear running water. Didn’t stop to take so many pictures today so the hike took 1.5 hours. It was kind of sad to see so many people on the trail, just walking…quickly. How can they enjoy the scenery that way? How can they feel the majesty of the forest?

Back at the car I had a snack before heading for Ruby Beach. That was a great visit. A little hike to beach and climbing over driftwood logs to get to beach. There were some nice views of the sea stacks along the way. There was a ‘pond’ back from beach that the drainage path cuts across the beach. I decided to go the drier way first to some smaller sea stacks. 

Bright sun on the water was hard on the eyes. Used the polarizer lens on the camera. The smaller stacks were not all that interesting. Did see some interesting ‘colored’ rocks on the way. Walked across the water closer to the where the water was coming up and drainage water not so deep and feet only got a little wet. The larger sea stacks on this side were more interesting. There were some tide pools, but I didn’t see any critters in them. A young lady climbing around on the rocks pointed out a wood piece that looked like a beached whale. Nice to hear someone else seeing things like that.

On the way back stopped and chatted with a fellow Nikon camera user visiting from Manhattan. I crossed the drainage path and got wetter feet. Forgot to bring a change of socks with me. Do have a towel and dry pair of shoes. Wondering if I’ll forget my way home and just keep driving south. Time to head to motel and food. Made it back before Leppell’s closed so got my larger size T-Shirt. Watched reruns of NCIS on USA network while worked on pictures and blog.