Hoh Rainforest

we entered into Washington right after crossing the Astoria bridge.

we decided to camp that night in the Olympic National Park in northern Washington. there were many places to camp in the park and they all sounded great. we passed a campground on the beach but we decided to camp in the Hoh Rainforest. 

we were still about an hour away from the Hoh campground and we didn't know if there were any camp spots left but we were willing to risk it. I was so nervous cause it was already around 7:30 and if the campground was full we were going to have to turn around and go back. we wanted so badly to camp in the rainforest though so we were determined to try. every car we saw that was leaving we were sure were leaving because it was full. we finally get to the campground and we see an open spot and immediately park in it. we go up to the register board which very conveniently showed which spots were open. we saw there were a couple other spots that were open so we checked them out and moved to the best one. we were so relieved and excited that we found a camping spot! we were definitely pushing our luck but it paid off. 

the Hoh Rainforest was incredibly beautiful! it is a temperate rainforest rather than a tropical rainforest which means that it is not as close to the equator. there are some differences such as temperate rainforests are cool while tropical are hot. tropical rainforests also have hundreds of different types of trees while temperate have about 10-20. 

we set up camp and then walked around the grounds before it got dark. we saw a sign for a camp program and heard some weird tribal music playing. we were curious so we walked back through the woods to find a huge random theater. we saw a park ranger there and we totally caught him smoking pot which he tried to hide when he saw us. it was a little funny. the program had just ended (every campground we went to had some sort of program which I thought was a little weird. we never went to any to see what they were about) and he was just chilling with his weird music. Jason asked him some questions and talked to him about the rainforest and then continued exploring. 

 this huge river was close to our camp.

we went back to our camp, ate dinner, then went to sleep. we couldn't believe we were actually camping in the rainforest! I have been to a rainforest before in Nicaragua but I have never camped in one before. it was such an amazing experience and it was Jason's favorite part of the whole trip. 

we woke up the next morning still in disbelief about where we were. we ate our super healthy breakfast of muffins and cookies :). blueberry muffins were our staple breakfast meal while camping on the trip. the best muffins we got were actually the blueberry muffins from Walmart because they were so soft. 

 

 Jason packing up our tent while I take pictures :)

this trip was sponsored by Dr. Pepper :) - Jason's favorite drink in one of his favorite places. we had a cooler with drinks and some food we kept refilling with ice the whole trip. it was nice having cold drinks in the car without having to stop. 

 we walked back to the river.