Hoh Rain Forest

We drove to the west side of Olympic National Park and toured the Hoh Rain Forest today. This area gets an average of 143 inches of rain per year! Can you imagine a more dismal place to live? But, we lucked out - it was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. We are afraid we are using up all our good weather days here and won't have any left while we are in Ireland!
We drove through Forks -of "Twilight" fame - didn't see any vampires! We are getting tired of the hilly, winding, twisting roads around here!  We took the Straits of San Juan de Fuca Scenic Byway but it wasn't very scenic. Thought we would see the straits and ships but, the trees are so tall and the forests so dense that you just get a few glimpses of water. The loggers - a big business around here - drive like Nascar drivers! You can be driving along enjoying the scenery, glance in your rear view mirror and see nothing but GRILL! They ride your bumper until they scare the hell out of you and you pull over and let them race by!
Some of the pictures are from our campground and Crescent Beach nearby - the rest are of our hike in the rain forest. We hoped to see some elk - we saw elk prints and elk skat but no elk!
We planned to hike here in the campground too but there was a big sign by the trailhead - "WARNING - ATTENTION - COUGAR SEEN IN CAMPGROUND!" We passed!
On our way to Port Townsend tomorrow.