For the next leg of our trip, we headed to Forks, WA. For those of you that think Forks, WA sounds familiar...well, it is where the Twilight movies were filmed and they their best to get every last bit of advertisement out of THAT!
We arrived at the Miller Tree Inn in Forks, WA late Wednesday (08/31). We had the Weathervane Room booked from Wednesday night through Saturday morning. It was a nice Bed and Breakfast and the people that ran it were super nice. It was a clean, quiet, and very comfortable setting. Not as fancy as places that we had stayed earlier in our trip, but the people were super nice and the breakfasts were yummy!
As we arrived in Forks, WA, the rain arrived (or followed us) as well. It turned out to be a few soggy days, but we are Washingtonians and we just throw on a hoodie and head out!
Wednesday night, we arrived, settled in, and turned in early. It had been a full few days. Thursday morning, we woke up and headed out to Rialto Beach. It was a soggy day, but not too bad. When we got there is was mostly a misty drizzle and because of that, there weren't a lot of people there. And although the weather wasn't the greatest, you could see that it was a nice beach!
Lots of varied scenery and we enjoyed it in our SHORTS! It wasn't exactly shorts weather, but we are on vacation!
Rocks on the beach varied in size -- all were round and flat in shape.
Since the tide was out, we could see various little creatures in the tide pools as we walked down the beach. Always interesting to see what you can find.
The waves create some interesting rocks and formations.
A couple of brave surfers braving the weather in their wet suits and catching a few waves here and there.
We made it back to the truck just in time. The rain started to really come down. So we crawled into the truck and made our way to lunch. Then after lunch, we decided to head to the Hoh Rain Forest and check it out.
While lunch was good, the Hoh Rain Forest was a bust. It was POURING down rain when we got there and we had gear for drizzle, but not for full on RAIN. We hid out in the truck for a while, even taking a nap and hoping the rain would pass. No such luck though...
Since the rain forest was a bust, we decided to drive around a little bit -- we headed out to La Push and checked out some of the beaches out there. However, it was still raining. We decided to head back to the B&B and call it a day. At least the US Open was on and Kristina could catch some tennis since there wasn't anything we could do outside.
Friday morning we got up, headed down to breakfast, and decided to go out and try again. The weather still wasn't the best, but we had an agenda and we were going to try and see as many beaches as possible. Our first stop was Third Beach.
Third Beach had a nice trail from the road down to the beach (Strawberry Bay). The trail was super scenic and only 1.2 miles one way. It was the normal Washington drizzle, so we headed out and boy, we were glad we did.
It is always fun when you start to see the beach...
There was a little maneuvering to be done to get to the actual beach. We went to the right when we should have gone to the left...but nothing that we couldn't overcome.
After we got down to the left side, we were happy we did. As you can see there was some blue sky and the beach was sandy and just spectacular. Again, we strolled down the beach taking photos and just checking things out. We had no idea that there were so many nice beaches on the Washington coast.
Kristina in her bright yellow jacket...she can always been seen!
Waterfalls coming out of the trees from all of the rain we had the past day or so...
We had the beach mostly to ourselves, so we decided to take advantage of it and take some photos of us and the scenic backdrop.
There were several tourist hiking loops around the rain forest. We pretty much hit them all -- they all had something different to offer.
We are always amazed at the crazy mushrooms we see in Washington...the rain forest was no exception.
Hall of Mosses was indeed an accurate description...
Drizzle would come back, but it remained a drizzle and we continued onward.
Since we are in the Hoh Rain Forest, it only makes sense that the Hoh River runs through it...
We love when the trees look all misty and spooky!
It was pretty cool hiking around the Hoh Rain Forest...looking forward to coming back in better weather some time and getting to hike on some of the longer trails that have less people!
The sun had finally come out and the skies were clearing -- just in time for sunset. That's okay though...it was paradise, even if only for a short time.
The tide was out again, so we had lots of tide pools to check and see creatures.
We could have stayed at Second Beach even longer, but it was starting to get dark and there were tons of people setting up camp along the beach for the night. We couldn't really blame them! It would have been hard to beat as a camping spot!
We arrived at the Miller Tree Inn in Forks, WA late Wednesday (08/31). We had the Weathervane Room booked from Wednesday night through Saturday morning. It was a nice Bed and Breakfast and the people that ran it were super nice. It was a clean, quiet, and very comfortable setting. Not as fancy as places that we had stayed earlier in our trip, but the people were super nice and the breakfasts were yummy!
As we arrived in Forks, WA, the rain arrived (or followed us) as well. It turned out to be a few soggy days, but we are Washingtonians and we just throw on a hoodie and head out!
Wednesday night, we arrived, settled in, and turned in early. It had been a full few days. Thursday morning, we woke up and headed out to Rialto Beach. It was a soggy day, but not too bad. When we got there is was mostly a misty drizzle and because of that, there weren't a lot of people there. And although the weather wasn't the greatest, you could see that it was a nice beach!
Heavy skies and decent waves accompanied us as we walked the beach. Lots of driftwood and rocks on the beach as well. It reminded us a bit of Canon Beach in Oregon -- with all of the the little rock islands out in the water, but near the shore.
Lots of varied scenery and we enjoyed it in our SHORTS! It wasn't exactly shorts weather, but we are on vacation!
Rocks on the beach varied in size -- all were round and flat in shape.
Since the tide was out, we could see various little creatures in the tide pools as we walked down the beach. Always interesting to see what you can find.
The waves create some interesting rocks and formations.
A couple of brave surfers braving the weather in their wet suits and catching a few waves here and there.
We made it back to the truck just in time. The rain started to really come down. So we crawled into the truck and made our way to lunch. Then after lunch, we decided to head to the Hoh Rain Forest and check it out.
While lunch was good, the Hoh Rain Forest was a bust. It was POURING down rain when we got there and we had gear for drizzle, but not for full on RAIN. We hid out in the truck for a while, even taking a nap and hoping the rain would pass. No such luck though...
Since the rain forest was a bust, we decided to drive around a little bit -- we headed out to La Push and checked out some of the beaches out there. However, it was still raining. We decided to head back to the B&B and call it a day. At least the US Open was on and Kristina could catch some tennis since there wasn't anything we could do outside.
Friday morning we got up, headed down to breakfast, and decided to go out and try again. The weather still wasn't the best, but we had an agenda and we were going to try and see as many beaches as possible. Our first stop was Third Beach.
Third Beach had a nice trail from the road down to the beach (Strawberry Bay). The trail was super scenic and only 1.2 miles one way. It was the normal Washington drizzle, so we headed out and boy, we were glad we did.
It is always fun when you start to see the beach...
There was a little maneuvering to be done to get to the actual beach. We went to the right when we should have gone to the left...but nothing that we couldn't overcome.
After we got down to the left side, we were happy we did. As you can see there was some blue sky and the beach was sandy and just spectacular. Again, we strolled down the beach taking photos and just checking things out. We had no idea that there were so many nice beaches on the Washington coast.
Kristina in her bright yellow jacket...she can always been seen!
Waterfalls coming out of the trees from all of the rain we had the past day or so...
We had the beach mostly to ourselves, so we decided to take advantage of it and take some photos of us and the scenic backdrop.
We headed back up the trail, hopped into the truck, and headed to the Hoh Rain Forest. Jared was going to get out and see the rain forest no matter what. Luckily we hit a patch of blue skies and the weather cooperated.
Here's a deer nibbling on some grass near the start of our hike through the Hall of Mosses!
There were several tourist hiking loops around the rain forest. We pretty much hit them all -- they all had something different to offer.
We are always amazed at the crazy mushrooms we see in Washington...the rain forest was no exception.
Hall of Mosses was indeed an accurate description...
Drizzle would come back, but it remained a drizzle and we continued onward.
Since we are in the Hoh Rain Forest, it only makes sense that the Hoh River runs through it...
We love when the trees look all misty and spooky!
It was pretty cool hiking around the Hoh Rain Forest...looking forward to coming back in better weather some time and getting to hike on some of the longer trails that have less people!
By the time we finished with the rain forest, it seemed like things were clearing up a bit. So we decided to go hit another beach...this time it was Second Beach. Second Beach is almost right next to the road...about 1/2 mile hike. Again, not strenuous at all...just a nice hike down to the beach. And when we got there, it was spectacular.
The sun had finally come out and the skies were clearing -- just in time for sunset. That's okay though...it was paradise, even if only for a short time.
The tide was out again, so we had lots of tide pools to check and see creatures.
