Hoh River Trailhead — Attraction in Forks

In a word: WOW! One of the most beautiful, surreal, majestic hikes we have ever done! The moss-covered trees lead you all the way down the Upper Hoh Rd to access the trails. Signage is good, just continue on through the ranger pay point to the Visitor’s Center. Go past the first parking area (continuing on to the Visitor Center) and the parking is to the right. If you go on a winter week day morning like us, you can follow the lot all the way around and park at the trail heads.

We started with the Hall of Mosses loop & fell immediately in love. Incredible! We took this from the Visitors enter which starts with a beautiful foot bridge over an idealistic stream. Did I mention how beautiful it is here?!?

Next we did the Spruce Trail, not as crazy as Hall of Mosses, but still nice. Would recommend starting with this one if you are doing both, because it is worth it, we just liked ‘Mosses better.

After those 4 miles or so and a bunch of pictures, we took an early lunch break before head out on the Hoh. All the trails weee clearly marked with their respective “heads” close to the parking lot via a short loop trail.

Anyway, the Hoh River trail meanders for up to 17.5 miles ending at Mount Olympus, if you plan on some back country camping. We did a 4 mile out...and back. (Keep that in mind, unlike the other two short loops, this one is an out and back). In the winter it is pretty close to dark at 4:30 pm, so you don’t want to get caught unprepared!

Bottom line: so worth the 4 hour, 5 am drive! Will do it...

This is a must see for anyone who loves spending time in the forest. There are some massive Cedar trees and lots of deer and elk. Reminds me a lot of hiking through the Redwoods. The berries that grow in the old growth rainforest seem to be larger than in other areas. I had a wonderful time on the Hoh River trail and will be back again. I would suggest a few days at least to hike more of the forest. There is a lot to see and many areas to camp on the trail. Also stop and talk to the park ranger before camping on the trail. The animals deserve our respect while we enjoy this beautiful place. I went at the end of July. It was hot and there were a lot of people, all campgrounds in the area were full. The small town of Forks is not far away and it looked like there were rooms available in the local hotels. But this is a small town so do not expect anything to be open before 8:00 am. Fans of the movie "Twilight" will really like to...

The Hoh River Trail, Hall of Mosses trail and the Spruce Trail are all must-do walks since they each have their own charm and aspects to learn from. Most trees in the Olympic Peninsula are Sitka Spruce or Western Hemlock or Douglas Firs. There are plenty of examples of these trees here. The trails also take you through a little climb to show the emergent, canopy, understory, and forest floor of a rainforest. It was my first time visiting a rainforest, and all the trails here surely had the most refreshing experiences - may it be of being surrounded by ferns in all directions, or the just the sweet smell of fresh grass and the endemic flora that have been satiated with plenty of rain.

During peak seasons (May - Sep), even if there is a 2hr long car-wait in the road leading up to the trail and Hoh Rainforest Visitor Center, its still a pretty nice experience once...