Monday, September 01, 2008

Hoh, Hoh, Hoh

Over the Labor Day weekend we celebrated our third anniversary by backpacking up the Hoh River Valley in Olympic National Park. When you're camping in a rain forest you have to put up some rain but you're rewarded with lush, green surroundings.




We hiked in a few miles and made camp on the banks of the Hoh. Shortly after getting the tent up we had a surprise visitor in the form of a male elk. He spent the rest of the day in the area munching away and completely ignored us.



That evening as we sat on our log by the river we heard several elk calling. We finally noticed the herd of elk crossing a little ways down the river.


The next day the rain was gone and after breakfast we set out on a day hike. We continued on the trail up the river valley. The valley eventually reaches the Mt. Olympus and the Blue Glacier (nearly 18 miles from the trailhead). We only went a few more miles in before returning to our campsite on the river for dinner.



Our second morning was bright and dry. We ate our breakfast, marveled at the sunlit valley and made our way to the trailhead.