The Incredible Forests

Journeying southward from Cape Flattery we reached the Quinalt Rain Forest, home of the worlds largest Spruce tree.  It was also home to Cascade Falls which we showed in an earlier post - but which bears re-visiting for another look.  The rainforests that lie in the Quinalt Valley are also home to at least five other world record and/or North American record trees.  Unfortunately we didn't get to visit them all but, after having seen what we did see - I'll take their word for it!!!  Cascade Falls is a relatively short walk from the Quinalt Visitor's Center and if you are in the neighborhood, please go see it.  It is about as peaceful a spot as you could hope to find for a bit of quiet reflection.

The paths in Quinalt are very well marked and range from very short to "lengthy" with quite a few in between.


One is the trail that leads to the big Spruce tree we were tracking but the vegetation along the way is a treat all by itself.  The abundance of thick moss, ferns of every description and thickly woven tree branches and roots create scenery that would give any abstract artist a run for their money. 


Rick stopped to strike a pose for us to show off an example of the "tree weaving" we saw.

Continuing along another route we reached a very pretty bridge that crossed a stretch of marsh.  The vegetation growing here was quite varied but the thing that was especially noteworthy was the size of some of the plants.  We couldn't all agree exactly what we were seeing but plants which we were certain were identical (in type) to some we had seen a short way back were enormous in this site. Shortly afterward we came upon "The Tree".  It is, indeed, a huge specimen and we got another visitor to capture this photo of the entire gang nestled in the folds of the root system.  As we noted above - and in the picture to the right - the vegetation growing here is phenomenal.  We crossed over one stream with some type of aquatic grass growing on the bottom of the stream bed that really defied description.  I've included a photo of it here and it comes pretty close to showing the actual color.  In reality, though, it was even more vivid than you see it here.  There was another phenomenon that was prevalent throughout both the Quinalt and Hoh Rain Forests - the "Nursery Trees."  We had seen them in the Redwood and Sequoia Groves we visited in California but they were even more prominent here.  It seems that even though this is a "for real" rain forest, the forest floor is not always the most hospitable environment for young seedlings.  The soil, moisture, warmth, sunlight and protection factors seem to fall short on the ground so nature has taken care of the problem by making the deteriorating bark of old, fallen trees a perfect place for new life to spring forth. 

All over the forest you can see huge fallen logs with seedlings popping out of the bark.  Sometimes there are very unusual configurations like the "archway" created by a tree that appears to have bent over, continued to grow and later adopted some new offspring. 

Sometimes the trees are approaching maturity and you can still see the "Nursery Tree" that is their host.  In fact, if you look closely it is possible to see traces of the mother tree in almost every grove.  I have to admit, the more I see of Mother Nature's handiwork the more impressed I am with the incredible, magical things that happen within a remarkable place like this.  It is as we have said so many times before, it really causes you to think hard about the world we inhabit and our obligation to it - and each other.  Although the forest segments have been given names by those who study them and those responsible for their ongoing management, it seems a bit mis-leading to me.  For example, there are three principal "named" rainforests - Hoh, Quinalt and Queets.  In reality though, their names correspond to the rivers - of the same names - running through the area and emptying into the Pacific and, to me, they seem to merge together.  Whatever you call them (or the area) it/they are truly places of special wonders and fantastic places to visit.  We have talked about the various types of trees that are here and I found it interesting that there are so many "soft" hardwoods such as Maples.  One grove of Maples occupies a serene grove, separated from the surrounding forest by some mysterious plan of nature which we might never fully understand. One particular tree in the grove seems to serve as almost a living advertisement for the moss that proliferates so abundantly here.  In looking at the growth on some of the trees you get the feeling that it has to cause problems for the host.  In reality, though, it does no harm (with the exception of an occasional broken branch when the weight of the moss gets to be too burdensome) and if you look closely you can even see where trees have put forth new root systems in the apex of some branches to take advantage of the water and nutrients collecting there.  Another one of those examples of the incredible creativity of Mother Nature.

All in all, a visit to the rainforests is educational in many, many ways; not the least of which is to remind us of the delicate balance our planet maintains.  The way they are maintained by the Park Service and the tremendously enlightening signs that are strategically placed in every spot of significance just about ensure that you will come away better informed and educated than you went in.  I know we certainly did.  As you can imagine (knowing our bunch) there are even more photos and we hope that we will be able to make them available to you in some format in the future.  But - there are also tons and tons of pictures, articles and comments about the rainforests and the Olympic Peninsula in countless places on the internet.  If you are interested in these special places there are entire sections of the National Park System websites devoted to the rainforests themselves.  We'll stop for now and let the wonders of these fascinating places sink in.  Thanks for joining us, we'll be back soon.  See ya!!