South of Forks the highway bends away from the coast and runs on through rolling forest, passing the mouth of the Hoh and tracing the shore of the Pacific for stretches, with grey-green sea beyond the trees. This is remote country, and the nearest town is Forks, about twenty-seven kilometres back.
Riding here is calm and gently rhythmic. The road rolls through logged and regrowing forest, over small rivers, past occasional turnouts with views of the Pacific. The curves are mostly moderate and there is little traffic apart from logging trucks and the occasional camper van. It is a good place to settle into a steady pace and enjoy the landscape without stress, and on a dry day it is some of the easiest and most pleasant riding on the whole loop.
The coast here belongs in part to the Quinault and Quileute, and to the national park, whose Pacific strip runs for roughly seventy miles and is one of the wildest coastlines in the lower forty-eight. Beaches are strewn with driftwood the size of tree trunks, and tide pools shelter starfish and anemones. If you stop at a beach, check tide tables, because in places the tide can cut off headlands. The smell of salt, kelp and rain-soaked spruce is distinctive and gets into your gear.
Weather is the variable. Summer fog can drift in from the sea and cover the road for hours, while winter storms bring wind and heavy rain, and trees occasionally come down. Between June and September the odds are best, and the mornings can be foggy, clearing by noon. Bring a spare visor or an anti-fog insert. Further south the road leads to Lake Quinault and the Grays Harbor towns, where fuel is plentiful again, and Aberdeen, about an hour on, is the next substantial place for a proper meal and a bed.