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Reunion at the Phoenix Airport
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Day 1, Quinault Rainforest:
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| Hugging a 400-year-old tree |
Kalaloch Beach Trail:
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We got to explore a tidepool, and we also saw some gulls, crabs, and sea lions
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Hoh National Rainforest, Hall of Mosses Hike:
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| Forks is the setting for the Twilight book series; we stayed there one night because it was near our last hike of the day. |
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Sasquatch
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Fry bread dinner in Forks, compliments of Mom and Dad
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Day 2, Big Cedar Tree:
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This big cedar is believed to be nearly 1,000 years old and fell in a storm about a decade ago
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Sherry found a banana slug!
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More of Kalaloch Beach:
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Building cairns on the beach
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| The tree of life, called Washington State's most unique tree. (It's roots are exposed, and the tree almost seems to be suspended in the air.) |
Fun fact: This part of Washington is the wettest in the continental United States. They get around 12-14 ft of rainfall annually! (For comparison, Phoenix gets about 7 inches per year, and Austin gets about 3 ft.) There are four rainforests in Olympic National Park, and we explored two of them.
We found lots of nurselogs on our rainforest hikes:
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Trees in the rainforest have relatively shallow root systems. Because of the abundant rainfall, they don't have to dig deep for moisture. The downside is that a big storm can topple a tree with shallow roots. "When a big tree falls it can provide a stage for new life. Hemlock and spruce seedlings unable to survive on the tangled forest floor absorb minerals, moisture and warmth from the decaying trunk. ... After their roots reach soil, new trees often seem to stand on stilts as the nurselog moulders away."
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Lunch at a pizza place in Olympia:
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