I was motoring along Route 101 in northwest Washington State in my little rental car, getting a kick out of the fact that I frequently drive the same highway in Southern California, where I live. There were few other similarities, though: The air in Washington had a refreshing bite to it, cold and clean. The sweet smell of wet earth seemed to follow me wherever I went, indoors or out. And soon after I left Port Angeles — a small town on the 101 that’s a quick 90-minute ferry ride to Victoria, British Columbia, across the Strait of Juan de Fuca — and entered Olympic National Park, it began to rain and didn’t stop until I left the park seven hours later.

Which, in a way, was exactly what I’d hoped for. I was planning to spend a day in the Hoh Rain Forest, one of the only rain forests in the United States. (It was also my way of saying “happy birthday” to our national park system, which turned 100 in August.) Using the small, quirky coastal town of Port Townsend (roughly a two-hour drive from Seattle in my $25 per-day Budget rental) as my base, I set out to enjoy what Washington does best: some good hiking in a beautiful setting paired with an idiosyncratic hospitality. Even better, I was able to do all this without putting too much of a strain on my wallet.

“It’s raining!” I called out as I pulled up to the entrance of the rain forest, and immediately winced at how foolish I must have sounded. The friendly National Park Service employee took it in stride. “It does tend to do that here,” he called back. The Hoh gets a whopping 12 to 14 feet of precipitation each year. On the lengthy drive to the forest’s entrance I felt as if I were being consumed by wetness and foliage. The ferns on the ground became more lush and dense, and the mosses and lichens covering the Oregon maples, Sitka spruces and Douglas firs more varied and more intensely green.

I paid the $25 admission, which initially seemed somewhat steep, but less so when I learned the pass is good for one vehicle, and all its occupants, for seven days. (An annual pass is only $25 more.) “By the way,” the park ranger added, “this is a primarily coniferous forest. Some people come here expecting the Amazon; I’m not sure why.”