day 197
hoh rain forest, olympic national park

"Wow, think of all the hamster bits that would make." -a.
Hoh-ly Rainforest:
Discovered: 1592
Discoverer: Juan de Fuca
Founded: 1838
Founder: Roosevelt

Claim to Fame: North America's finest temperate rain forest. It's also the first rain forest that I've ever been to.

Running Man Fish of the Day
Tall Trees...
High rainfall, fog, and ocean moderated temperatures create optimum growing conditions for these Sitka Spruces. This is one of the largest in the United States! Wowie Zowie Kapowie!

Height:Over 270 ft
Diameter:  Over 12.5 ft
Age:Over 500 years
Cape What-er-wee?
Just when we thought we'd done all the "est's," we find we've got one more to go. It's neither the northernmost point, nor the westernmost point, but Cape Flattery sure is the Northwestest point in America!
Three days to go!

Rain's a Pain
March 11 - In the north, the Inuit have sixty-four different words for snow, depending on the texture, solidity, whiteness, etc. Here in the rain forest, they don't have that many, but they do their best with the words they've got so that you have the feeling the weather is changing or progressing when all it's really doing is raining every day.

Hoping for a dry reprieve, we stopped in at the Ranger's office to get a look at what to expect and this is the honest-to-gawd forecast for the next week:
Sunday: Rain today, scattered showers ending tonight.
Monday: Rain, heavy at times. Gale warning.
Tuesday: Showers likely with afternoon sunbreaks.
Extended Forecast: Wednesday through Saturday mostly cloudy with scattered showers.

Comparatively Wet
Phoenix:7 inches
San Francisco:21 inches
Chicago:34 inches
Seattle:34 inches
Hoh Rainforest:142 inches
After reading a report like this, we didn't feel the need to stick around, tent wise. Somehow it never occurred to us that going to a rainforest in rainy season that it would involve rain. Can you believe we were surprised that it was raining? Our stupidity constantly suprises even us!

When we had lunch at the Smoke House in Forks town, we asked our waitress how often it rains here. Her reply? Every day. She didn't seem that enthused about it, either. I wonder if anyone really talks that much about the weather here. In Mexico, they don't because it's nice and sunny every single day, so it's taken for granted that it will be nice and sunny the next day. Perhaps they just expect the weather here to be rainy and gloomy every day. No need to discuss the inevitable. The weather-hardened locals just grin and bear it.

Point to Ponder:
If it rains every day, why do people still store firewood outside?
Despite the chill-you-to-your-bones rain, this is a really beautiful and unique area, and we would have liked to have had a chance to explore it more than we did. But Aim's got a nasty cold and it's alternating between raining lightly and pelting us with hail bullets. We fear for Mel's safety. So we're heading out of this American jungle and into the somewhat calmer urban jungle of Seattle...

trickle down effects...

more photos in the archive...

Current Location
(get out your push pins)

Olympic N.P.

Next Stop: Seattle

see the full map...

Today's Weather:
A mix of rain, sleet and hail

Daily Stats

Passing Two Hundred...
Purchase Price:$50.00
Saved Today:$10.00
Total Saved:$209.00
I think this is going to be our last chance to abuse our National Parks Pass. What an adventure! What a deal!

Sleeping Quarters
Kitsap State Park

Site 31. Guess what? Yup! It's raining! Oh wait, it stopped. Nope, there it goes again!

Cost: $13.00

On The Road
Hoh Rain Forest
K's Order:Half an Orange
A's Order:The Other Half
The Smokehouse
K's Order:Chili Burger & Fries
A's Order:Grilled Ham & Cheese, Fries

© 2002. Kevin Beimers and Aimee Lingman. All I can say is that my life is pretty plain.