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| Having coffee this morning |
Today, our ultimate destination was Forks, WA, via the Hoh Rain Forest section of Olympic National Park. On the way, we stopped at the Quinault section where we visited the largest spruce tree in the world.(photo on left, below)
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| The largest spruce |
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| The cedar--immense! |
It is, according to the plaque by the tree, 58'11" in circumference, 191 feet tall, and about 1000 years old. This particular tree is on private property; the Quinault area is very commercialized. We continued on, stopping at a large cedar tree on the way.(photo at right)
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| The rain forest |
By the time we reached the Hoh Rain Forest section of Olympic, it was late afternoon. We set out on the trails to explore. This place is like Jurassic Park revisited. There are monstrous trees dripping with moss, huge and plentiful ferns, and, my favorite, gigantic nurse logs everywhere. Nurse logs are fallen trees which, as they decay, provide nourishment and support for other vegetation. Frequently other trees grow here, and frequently those trees themselves become giants. As time goes on, the nurse log may be completely consumed and/or eroded, and the trees that grew on the nurse log appear to be on stilts. You can tell trees that have grown on a nurse log, because they are all in a line (see below). The rain forest is a magical place. Tomorrow, we head to the ocean--another section of Olympic--where the beaches are not for swimming, but for escaping. I can't wait...
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| Trees on a nurse log |
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