Then it was time to take a drive east into the rain forest. We headed for the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park. This area is famous for its annual rainfall--12 to 14 feet per year. Yes, feet! Combine that with all the mist and fog from the ocean, and you get one of North America's best-preserved temperate rainforests.
We walked through The Hall of Mosses. The old-growth Sitka spruce and Western hemlock trees are absolutely massive. "Old-growth" means older than 250 years old (there's a famous 1000-year-old cedar deeper in the forest!). Many of the trees are over 300 feet tall. We learned about nurse logs--fallen giants that provide nutrients for baby trees to grow out of their decay. You can tell where nurse logs used to be because you'll see a line of spruce trees with roots opened out like empty triangles over the log that used to be there. Everywhere you look you see a tangle of birth and rot, death and regeneration.
Someone told us we would feel like we were walking into the Lord of the Rings. They were right. It looked like Fangorn, and I kept expecting the trees to start growling in creaky voices. It smelled wet and musty and green. Ferns sprouted in the decay, and mushrooms bivouacked in the bark of the trees. Moss grew like furry skin on tree branches and long ribbons of it swooped through the trees. Talk about primeval forest. It felt disrespectful to talk too loudly in there.
We found a "trail" down to the Hoh River and wandered for a bit. Then back in the car to drive to Ruby Beach....
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