Pacific Northwest
Washington State
Olympic Peninsula
Late March, 2023
My two brothers and I recently took a short trip to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State with a primary goal of visiting the Hoh Rain Forest along with a couple of side trips.
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As is often the case, the trip getting there is half the fun. I have never tired or become jaundiced about riding the ferries in these waters. Below are a couple of photos taken from the ferry crossing Admiralty Inlet from Whidbey Is. The Strait of Juan de Fuca lies to the right and is the entry from the Pacific Ocean to Puget Sound and the Salish Sea. Seattle is 40 miles to the South and Vancouver BC is ~ 80 miles north.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns spinning around us — Phenology! We invite you to note what you are seeing and experiencing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below. Nature is Big. |
Departing the ferry at Port Townsend, I drive south about 14 miles where I connect with US HWY 101 which remains the main road for the rest of the trip. Rte. 101 shortly delivers me to Discovery Bay where I will meet the brothers who have come up US 101 from its terminus (the back way) in Olympia to the south.
Discovery Bay was named for one of Capt. Vancouver’s ships when he first explored and charted this area in the early 1790s. At the mouth of Discovery Bay sits Protection Island, a small federally protected nature preserve. A few years back, several of the PNW Bucketeers met at the Port Townsend harbor for breakfast and then we embarked on a spring birding cruise into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and around Protection island. It was a fun trip with many bird sightings, and great to meet our local bucketeers in person. (Milly Watt posted a bucket about this trip but I can not find the link any more. OD, can you find it for our newer members?)
Hoh Rain Forest
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I will jump right into the rain forest part of the trip as that was our primary destination and then note the side trip at the end. The Hoh Rain Forest is one of four designated temperate rain forests on the Olympic peninsula and one of only six in the northern hemisphere outside of Alaska’s southeast coast. Northwestern America’s rainforests are is largely made up of old growth conifers with some towering to about 300.’ Some are estimated be ~1,000 years old. Big leaf Maple, Vine Maple and Black Cottonwood are also plentiful.
This rain forest is named after the Hoh River that originates from Hoh glacier on Mount Olympus of the Olympic Mountains and runs about 56 miles to the pacific ocean. This area has been inhabited by a local native American tribe, also called the Hoh but meaning: “Those-Who-Live-on-the-Hoh River.”
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Traveling west on US 101 across the top of the peninsula, we then turn south through Forks WA. (which I’ll mention later). Shortly we leave 101 and head east into the National Park as we follow the Hoh river to the rain forest proper. Along the way to the visitors’ center we met some of the very early native inhabitants, grazing along road and in the fields - The Roosevelt Elk, a big one like that shown in the lead photo can weigh up to 1,200 lbs. They do not travel solo and after their fill grazing, here is what they do along the river.
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At the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center within the Olympic National Park we are met with several well cared for but rustic trails. We took the highly recommended “Hall of Mosses” trail. This was less than a mile long but loaded with mega conifers and Big Leaf Maples sporting massive tufts and streamers of mosses and lichens cascading from trunks and limbs and even floating in the wet lands and creeks.
The dominant conifers on this trail were Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) which can exceed 300 feet tall and 17 feet in diameter. The Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), not far behind which can grow to 270 feet with a 9 foot diameter. Other coastal giants here include the Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) and Douglas-fir, (Pseudo tsuga menziesii var. menziesii) all nourished by the prodigious rain fall. For comparison of rain, we think of Seattle as rainy with its 36” of rain each year. This rain forest averages around 14 feet of rain and if one accounts for the additional moisture from fog and mist throughout the year, this adds another 30 inches for a total water added of about 16.5 feet (198”).
Simple numbers however do not do justice to these gargantuan plants nor do isolated photos but here are some anyway. Blow this one up to get a better feel of of this lurking monster of a tree.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
And now for a few mossy images from the “Hall of Mosses.” Although there are numerous species of moss here, the two most abundant are cat-tail (Isothecium myosuroides), the hanging moss that droops from limbs and stair-step or fern moss (Hylocomium splendens) that mats trees and logs.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Lichens are also abundant here. I especially love to see the Lungwort lichen (Lobaria, pulmonaria) because when you see it, you know that the air is pure and unpolluted. It does not grow in polluted areas and you will rarely if ever see it in an urban setting. Unfortunately, its habitat is diminishing and it is endangered in some parts of the world such as lowlands of Europe.
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A side trip to see a famous mastodon
Picking up where we left off from Discovery Bay, we head west on Hwy 101 to Sequim which ironically is one of the driest cities in Western Washington. Sequim averages over 300 days a year with at least some sunshine and only 16 inches of annual rainfall. Although located just 50 or so miles from four rain forests, it sits in the rain shadow of the Olympic mountains and is protected from the vast majority of the otherwise prodigious rainfall coming off the Pacific Ocean.
We stopped here to visit the Sequim Museum & Arts which displayed some of the skeletal remains from the famous Manis Mastodon dig. We were fortunate also to meet up with a paleontologist from the Burke Museum at the University of Washington who is science director of the Coyote Canyon Mammoth dig site where one of my brother leads an ongoing mammoth research and educational archeological dig.
This mastodon’s claim to fame was that when it was discovered in 1977 it was the oldest archeological artifact found in this part of the country, dated back 13,800 years. This dating was taken from what appeared to be a projectile point lodged in the Mastodon’s rib. This artifact was likely a spear point fashioned and sharpened from another mammoth’s bone suggesting that the mastodon had been hunted by humans. The dating caused controversy as at the time some anthropologists did not believe that humans yet inhabited the area for several thousand years. Continuing investigations pointed to the fact that humans likely had settled here by then. This same site subsequently unearthed two more mammoth skeletons. The Manis Mastodon Site is now on the National Registry of Historic places.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
From Sequim we continued west on US 101, past Dungeness Spit (namesake of the famous and deliciously sweet Dungeness Crab), through Port Angeles and along the beautiful Lake Crescent renown for its crystal clear and icy cold waters. Glacially dredged at 596 feet deep, its clear blue water is due to its low nitrogen levels that reduces algae formation.
Next stop was Forks WA., a small logging and mill town on the west side of the peninsula that was the setting for 2008 teenage vampire film “Twilight” and its four sequels. Forks’ other claim to fame is that it touts itself as the rainiest town in the contiguous US states with about 120 “ per year as it lies just 20 miles northwest from the Hoh rain forest. For comparison, Forks gets ~120” per year, Sequim gets just 16” while the rainforest around the corner gets almost 200”!
So, there’s an overview of my late March jaunt to the Olympic Peninsula. I highly recommend this trip to all have never seen these wonders and who might wander up to the fourth corner of the lower 48. There’s lots to see and to eat with world class sea food fresh out of the Pacific Ocean and the Straits of Juan de Fuca. However, check the rainfall. Last time I went there a few years back was after a summer drought and the forest was brown. Best time to go is when it is or has been recently, cloudy or raining.
Please share some of the wonders of nature that you have experienced recently.