Rain Forest Adventure

Today we hike the Hoh and Quinault Rain Forests in the Olympic National Park, Washington State.

Get into your hiking boots or a good pair of walking shoes. Grab your water bottle, an energy bar and a sturdy walking stick because some of the trails we will take are rather long and a few are somewhat steep. A light windbreaker could be useful if it rains or gets too cool in the shade for you.

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Click on any of the pictures if you want to see them larger.

Ready, let's go.

From the parking lot, let's cross the road and hike along the lake shore. Then we will take the well marked trail up into the forest.

In this area of the Olympic National Forest huge Sitka spruce, cedar and hemlock trees tower up to 300 ft. above you. Hemlock grows prolifically in Washington. The wood from hemlock is harvested and used in the production of high quality photographic paper.

In the rain forest moss drips along the tree branches so heavy with moisture the branches sometimes break. These give an eerie feel as though it were a scene ready for a horror movie.

There is plenty of moisture to take care of all these plants with an annual average of 140 to 167 inches. That is approximately 12 to 14 feet of rain. Because this rainforest is situated near the ocean it is mostly protected from extremes of heat or cold and rarely dip below freezing in winter.

Water plants of the sort you see in aquariums gleam under water in a slow moving part of a stream.

Ferns grow everywhere, on the ground, on dead trees, and in crooks of branches.

These fallen trees are amazing. Their roots are so shallow you wonder how they could have remained standing long enough to grow so tall without toppling over. This tree was toppled in a windstorm and it's roots are standing upright as they popped from the ground. Although they are quite wide, it's roots seem to be at most about two feet deep.

The decaying matter in the fallen trees provides a nursery for new growth. Seeds fall onto the bark of the fallen tree and catch, sprout, then send tap roots down along the edge of the nurse tree until they find soil.

The nurse tree eventually decays away beneath them leaving tall trees standing high on stilts. Rows of these trees stand where they have grown along the length of a nurse log.

There are many beautiful waterfalls and streams all along the trails.

A large herd of Roosevelt Elk roams the forests foraging on the plants, helping to control the rampant growth that would make the forest impenatrable. They cross the river that courses through the forest and give a delightful surprise to tourists who happen to catch a glimpse of these large animals. Look quickly because they disappear in a blur.

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