Rain Forests and Pacific Ocean

Heavy moss - weighing down branch

Our plan yesterday was to do the LONG drive west and south to the Queets Rain Forest of the Olympic National Park which was told to us to be a 3 1/2 hour drive from Port Angeles.  Packed snacks, stopped at the grocery store and picked up wrap sandwiches to have for lunch, got us a cup of coffee and was on the road traveling by 9am.  We figured we would not be back to the campground until dark.  We made good time, got to Queets by 11am but decided to drive on by and continued to Lake Quinault Rain Forest because there was very limited signage about Queets and no ranger station so drove on to the furthest point south west of ONP, another 30 minutes beyond Queets.  Stopped at the ranger station and talked with the guide and her lack of encouragement for going back to the Queets area was noted, and she told us about two interpretive walks within the Quinault area and so we decided to do that instead and not go to Queets.

My impression of what we would see and feel and sense for a rain forest was altered after these two walks.  I expected it to be very humid, dew dripping from the canopy of the trees, the dank forest smells, like a forest prime evil - none of that.  Instead was moss flowing down from the trees, a dryness (did pick a sunny day to go), but very green and pretty.  Some trees were so covered in moss that it looked surreal. Moss draped branches often break under the weight so it was not unusual to see a very tall tree with these short stubby arms coming out, covered in thick moss. This area gets at least 12 feet of rain a year but it so happens that July is typically their dry month.  Rains come in from the ocean, stalls against the mountains and drops all its moisture on this west side and on the east side (leeward) very little rain, becomes a rain shadow which is the area we are in, in Sequim.

Bulbous Growths on Trees

Beach 2

Stopped at another location where the world's largest Sitka Spruce is - that baby is huge!  Thought to be 1000 years old.  There are 6 known huge trees in the Pacific northwest.  Then started our drive back, and since we drove along the Pacific Ocean for a bit to get to the rain forests, decided to stop at Beach 2 which is under the ONP's protection.  This beach is rated as one of the most photogenic beaches of all the west coast.  One thing that struck us as we walked down to the beach - the trees had this huge bulbous knobby thing on them - and there were many trees like that.  Looking into what these growths were but knew that many trees had them.

Ruby Beach and Seastacks

Destruction Island and Lighthouse

Walked the beach for a bit, had our wrap sandwiches which we had bought in the morning and got back in the car to continue our trip back and stopped at Kalalach Lodge which is near Beach 2.  This is one of the lodges run by the park, pretty, located right on the shore of the ocean, lots of people on the beach flying kites. Continued homebound and stopped at Ruby Beach.  Saw seastacks and hoo-doo looking islands right off the pebble coast.  The tide was coming in so we didn't linger long.  Out in the distance we saw Destruction Island and Lighthouse.  Although we did not do much hiking, the fresh air (salty) and the bright sun really wore us out.  Got back to the RV by 6:30 which was a surprise to us - expecting to return much later. We are happy that we got the longest travel day behind us.