Sequim, Washington - 1 June 2016

Yesterday, we toured the part of Olympic National Forest that involved sweeping vistas of the mountains. Today, we focused our attention on close-ups of the rainforest and beaches. It was a long drive and a long day, but the countryside was totally worth it.

The weather cooperated. Today we had overcast clouds and even rain when we were at the Hoh Visitor Center. It is really neat to experience soft rain falling in a forest. Very quiet and peaceful.

Sequim is on the eastern side of the Olympic peninsula and is in the rain shadow of the mountains. It gets a low annual rainfall, about 16 inches. On the other hand, the opposite side of the peninsula – where we were today – gets 10 to 12 feet of rain. Additionally, the rainforests receive another 30 inches of moisture from the tree tops that collect moisture from the fog.  It would have been nice to spend more time on the western side of the peninsula – quieter and a wilder side of nature.





Lake Crescent lies alongside Hwy 101 in the rainforest segment of the park.



Lake Crescent Lodge has been operational since 1916.  It includes a number of traditional cabins and looks like it would be a great place to spend a week with kids.



The lodge's great room includes a telephone booth (who remembers those?) We were without cell phone connectivity most of the day.

The Hoh River is a typical braided river.

The road to Hoh Visitor Center is another spoke from Hwy 101. It is about a 15 mile drive into the park.

 



The moss that covered a lot of the trees survive on the moisture from the air and do not harm the trees.



 

The largest cedar, spruce and hemlock trees in the world are found in the Olympic National Park - the tallest are over 200 feet tall.  They really like the rain!

The creeks are home for spawning salmon.

Enjoyed watching a river otter playing in the creek.

We walked through some old growth forest with lots of fallen trees.

Fallen trees serve as nurse logs for new trees.

The tree canopies contain a completely different set of animals and bugs than what is observed on the forest floor.



Once a tree starts to rot in the rainforest, it goes very fast.



When a tree grows on top of a nurse log, its roots look like long fingers reaching out to the ground.



We have seen this on a couple of trails - short poems printed on signs.



This is a large tree that got its start on a nurse log.



Coming down the Hoh road, we saw fog covered mountain slopes.



The park has the largest wild coastline. This is the Hoh river emptying out to the ocean.



I have never seen so much driftwood in my life.  Because Rialto Beach is part of the National Park, the driftwood cannot be taken and so we get to see what the beaches looked like before humans were involved.



The park shares the coastline and some of the land with the native people.  This is a small village adjacent to Rialto Beach.