Olympic National Park - Finding Dagobah

After leaving Forks we drove to the Hoh Rain Forest, which is part of Olympic National Park.  Drew was so excited because as we were driving into where we were going to hike he realized that it looked like Dagobah from Star Wars.  Granted, they didn't actually film Star Wars here but it looked really similar so we were excited!

The whole area was swampy, marshy, muddy, wet but also very green.  We actually thought it was really pretty and ended up having a lot of fun there.  It was raining when we got there, but we decided we were going to go hiking anyways.  Apparently, we were the only crazy people willing to hike, but it was fun and Alden had lots of puddles to jump in!

Drew wanted to hike a trail called the Hall of Mosses that was a loop trail that was just under a mile long.  We ended up hiking about a mile there and Drew, Alden and I were all drenched by the end.  Anders stayed totally dry in the backpack with his snowsuit on.  It was a really fun adventure and it was fun to see such different landscapes from what we had seen other places.

Drew was so excited, he found Dagobah!

You can see how wet it was by the streams of water flowing down the trails.

It was actually really fun to see the swamps because it is so unique and beautiful in it's own way.

Alden had so much fun splashing around in the puddles!

It was a very pretty area.  I'm sorry but my camera did not do the area justice.  The colors were not this dull in person.

There was moss everywhere, hence the name, Hall of Mosses, dangling in large clumps from trees and pretty much anywhere it could grow.  

By this point we were all pretty wet and starting to get cold.  Our jackets did a good job of keeping our top halves warm, but it would have been nice to have rain pants for this hike.

 I loved seeing all the trees covered in so much moss!  It really was impressive and really cool to see.

Alden loved that he could just splash all the way along the trail.

Alden wanted to splash in this big puddle at the end, and since he was already soaked I figured I would let him!  It was a great little hike and it was just made more memorable by the fact that it was raining and we were the only people on the trail.  I am so glad that Drew insisted that we go do this hike and see they amazing and memorable landscapes.

Forks

After visiting Second Beach we drove to Forks to spend the night.  We spent the night there in a hotel that seems to have been an apartment complex previously.  Our hotel room was more like an apartment than a hotel room but we found that rather nice because Alden could sleep in his own room.  The town of Forks itself was extremely small.  We did find the grocery store, which was decent size but that was all that was really there.

For dinner that night we had microwavable soups with bread and sparkling cider.   It was Valentine's Day, hence the sparkling cider, but otherwise it was just a normal night for us.  We found that they were playing reruns of Mythbusters on TV so we let Alden watch that before going to bed.  It was really nice to just relax and chill between two long days of hiking.

Both boys enjoying chilling and eating food in the hotel room.

Our simple, but satisfactory dinner.

The next morning our boys enjoyed a little more time in the room, relaxing, before we headed out to do more hiking in the rain!

Olympic National Park - La Push Second Beach

After visiting Lake Crescent we drove through more of Olympic National Park and then out to the coast to visit Second Beach at La Push, which is also part of Olympic National Park.  We decided we could do the 1.4 mile round trip hike to the beach and back, even though we had already hiked quite a bit that day.  This hike took us through some forested areas to a steep incline that led down to a secluded beach.  The beach was beautiful with some little tidepools to look through and views of seastacks.

It ended up being a rather wet hike because it was misty and started raining on the way back, but it was a very nice hike with a beautiful beach at the end.  This hike was steeper than our first hike but still manageable with our kids.  Alden hiked the whole thing on his own again and had a great time finding puddles to splash in along the way.

Alden found his own, perfect sized hole under a tree.

Alden quickly discovered that there were lots of puddles to jump in on this hike.

Anders fell asleep very quickly and slept most of the time we were exploring Second Beach and hiking.

There was tons of driftwood on this beach that Alden had fun looking at.

It was a typical day on the Washington coast, wet and foggy but I actually thought that made it really pretty.

I loved seeing the water running everywhere on the beach.  As Drew put it, it looked like the slope we had come down was bleeding water and it would run in these little streams on the beach into the ocean.  I thought it was really neat to see.

Looking out at one of the views from the beach and then looking back at the piles of driftwood that were there.

Drew had fun moving some of the driftwood around to see how it would affect some of the water flowing into the ocean.

Drew and Alden had fun seeing if they could create a new path for water to flow through.

Alden wanted Daddy to help him lift this rock....he soon realized that the rock was a little too big.

It was so fun walking around on the beach with Alden and seeing things through his eyes.  I always love hearing what he thinks is interesting because it sometimes makes me appreciate the little things, like pretty rocks, pieces of wood or finding puddles to splash in.

So grateful for my wonderful husband who loves to explore and see new places with me!

Alden showing me a shell or rock he found and another view from the other end of the beach.

This picture doesn't actually show it as well as I would like, but if you look closely, you can see a stream of water coming down the hill and over the rocks.  It was one of the streams that just looked like it was bleeding from the hill.

My sweet boys!  I know I take a bazillion pictures of them but I love it!

I found this cool piece of wood that looked like a rock shaped like an arrow until you picked it up and looked at it closer.

We finally decided we needed to head back so that we could get to our hotel and get dinner.

The hike was through very pretty forested areas.

Alden found lots of puddles on the way back that he was very happy to splash through.  This was a beautiful stop with lots of fun for our whole family (well except Anders, but he did enjoy a nice nap).  This was our first day exploring Olympic National Park and I was already loving the beauty and diversity in the park.