My Everyday Photos

According to the Olympic National Park website, the rain forests of the Olympic Peninsula are some of the most spectacular examples of primeval temperate rain forest in the lower 48 states. These rain forests once stretched from southern Oregon to southeast Alaska, but little remains outside of protected areas. The region gets 150 inches of rain every year and with moderate temperatures trees grow amazingly big. And there’s not just trees. Shrubs and ferns and fungi of all types are prolific and often seen growing out of trees and dead logs. Some logs are known as ‘nurse logs’ and support an entire group of trees and other plants. We spent part of a day in the Hoh Rain Forest and were also able to explore a bit of the rain forest near Crescent Lake and along the coast.

 

 

Maple trees

 

Mixed conifers

 

It’s a long ways up there

 

Alders growing close to the river

 

Another gnarled maple

 

Nurse log

 

We walked this trail

 

I don’t know if these are mosses or something else?

 

Moss spores

 

And lichens on an old fence

 

 

Ferns grow everywhere!

 

Out of tree trunks

 

Way above me

 

And out of a small branch

 

This tiny mushroom was barely an inch tall

 

Lots of big three-leaf clovers

 

Skunk cabbage grows and blooms where there is standing water

 

 

 

A tiny blossom – possible another berry?

 

Sapsucker holes

 

Pacific Wrens serenaded us everywhere

 

Have you heard of Salmon in the Trees? I found this salmon jaw under a big tree. We were nearly a mile from the river.