Aug 26 2002
The Hoh Rainforest
Expressions Project No. 15: How well travelled are you? Share a few of your favorite places in as much detail as you can.
I’ve traveled throughout most of the United States and have even ventured to several foreign countries, including Canada, Mexico, France, Japan and England. I’ve found, though, that some of the most interesting voyages are to be made close to home. For example, yesterday my family and I went on a trip to the Hoh Rainforest, which is situated on the Olympic Penninsula..a mere 30 minute voyage by ferry and 3 hour drive along scenic highway 101.
I’ve been curious about the place ever since I moved to Washington State. It’s the only temperate rainforest in the United States. The area receives about 150 inches of rain each year. Compare that to Seattle which only receives 36 inches of annual rainfall!
This unique climate fosters the growth of an amazing variety of plantlife. The trees are ancient. Some of the Douglas Firs are over 500 years old and the Sitka Spruce are over 1,000 years old. Western Hemlocks have an impressive stature, but the oldest are “only” around 300 years old. Some of the trees shoot up straight as needles to the sky above. Others grow in a more twisted fashion in their struggle to reach the fleeting sunlight above the dense canopy.
These trees are among the largest in the world. It’s staggering to see them in their full glory, especially after your drive to the park took you past clear cut after clear cut and replanted forests of spindly trees. This is how nature intended trees to look, you think to yourself, not those puny specimens your more familiar with. It humbles you.
Every surface within the rainforest is burgeoning with plant growth. Ferns cluster about the trees’ feet, waving their many fingered leaves at each breeze. Mosses of every texture, color and shape encase the bodies of trees. Some of the mosses are curly and tightly-knit. Others hang in soft, long strands like human hair. They range from a strange golden-brown to tart apple green in hue. We saw a few fungi growing in decaying logs, almost alien in their odd shapes and hues. One of the prettiest plants growing within the forest were the salmon berry bushes. Tiny brilliant green leaves flutter along their branches which are here and there bedecked with shining red berries.
On sunny days, the sun pierces through openings in the canopy above and is captured by a lacework of maple leaves which glow like jewels. Even the fringe-like mosses capture and hold the beam of sunlight, making them appear lit up from within.
The only wildlife we saw was a chipmunk scurrying along the underbrush and sprightly robin or two flitting among the tree branches; however, elk, deer and bear make the forest their home as well.
I took quite a few photos during our trip to the Hoh Rainforest and posted them on my photoblog. The lighting conditions within the forest posed a challenge for this inexperienced photographer; nonetheless, some of them turned out nicely.
