Day 15: Olympic (Hoh Rain Forest and Ruby Beach)

On our first full day (August 4th) in the Olympic Peninsula we took a very special hike (for us).  Notice the sign for the trail head...

If you were too distracted by all the good-looking Mosses in the picture, here's the sign again.  Pretty special isn't it?  It's not everyone that has a trail at a national park named after them, "Hall of Smiths" or something along those lines. 

Mosses set on seeing mosses

The trees are HUGE.  If you don't believe it...

...how's this for scale?  Anna's five four and *ahem, Anna* still shorter than I am, but she'll do as a comparison.

James and William.  WilliamandJames.  They're always opposites and always together.

Mosses under mosses...or mosses over Mosses...or Mosses under mosses over Mosses...I think I've been here before.  It had something to do with moss...

Thomas, the Moss who loves anything off the beaten path.  If you know him at all, you know what I'm talking about.  If you don't know him, you're missing out on a very special person.  :)

Two of our Mosses: Mr. Acts-Like-A-Man and Mr. Grin-Until-It-Hurts

James and Mommy

A Moss on some tree roots...

...and more moss in its branches.  I adore one and don't really have an opinion about the other; I bet you can guess which is which.  

A signature James picture.  He was allowed to take a picture at the end of the hike and chose his two Moss role models, Daddy and George.  There's also some hanging moss in the background, but I don't think he plans to emulate that; I hope not, anyway.  :)

After our hike we went to Ruby Beach, another beach on the Washington coast.  We look cold...I wonder why.

John was my buddy for the day because neither of us are very adventurous--all we do is smile and eat.

Anna and William were great buddies; William is very attached to his "Annie".

Delie and James, the smiling adventurers.

Not quite sure what pose is being attempted here--I look like some Egyptian painting or other.

And it's time to take off toward the sea!

The picture says it all.

The beach had lots of boulders. 

Thomas, William, George, and Daddy

While playing in the sand/mud William and James met this little girl.  They weren't sure what to think of her and she wasn't sure about them either.  (I can't blame her; I wouldn't trust some random strangers with gray hands and knees!)

Thomas the rock climber

We saw several colorful starfish hidden in the rocks.

More rock climbers

James and William, the "twinsies", as we call them.  We've been asked multiple times this trip if they're twins and guess what?  They are, but the funny thing is that they're 17 months apart.  :) 

I laugh every time I look at this picture.  Dear friends labeled us as "hard core" when they heard that we were camping all the way to Oregon and now we use the expression frequently.  However, we only had a couple of days before Portland and our hard coring days were coming to an end.

Check back to see pictures from our last day in the most magical-looking place we've stayed, Olympic National Park!

Posted by Joy