HALL OF MOSSES NATURE

Length 0.7mi/1.1 km 
Access Hoh River Road 
USGS Map Owl Mountain 
Agency Olympic National Park

One of two nature trails near the Hoh Ranger Station and Visitor Center at the end 
of the Hoh River Road, this route makes a loop north of the Hoh River Trail. The 
elevation is low-about 600ft/183 m above sea level. Interpretive markers are posted 
at various points along the trail.

The path crosses Taft Creek, climbs up to a bench covered with stately Douglas-firs, 
and then meanders through stands of hemlock and spruce to the cathedral-like Hall of 
Mosses. This is a colonnade of bigleaf maples, and the trees are heavily garlanded 
with luxuriant growths of selaginella, ferns, and mosses. When Grant Sharpe discovered 
this glen in 1954, the forest floor was carpeted with moss six inches thick, and the 
bigleaf and vine maples were clothed from the ground up with mosses and ferns. But 
popularity has taken its toll-intentionally or otherwise, visitors have destroyed the 
moss as high as a man can reach, and the ground cover has been trampled into oblivion. 
Although the Hall of Mosses is still an outstanding attraction, it is not nearly so 
beautiful today as it was before the trail was built.

The trail then circles around, winding among large spruce trees, whose bases are 
almost hidden by dense growths of vine maple, and returns to its point of origin 
(0.7 mi/1.1 km).