June 3, 2014
PNW Roadtrip: Olympic Peninsula
We stopped near Lake Quinault for a short walk to see the "World's Largest Spruce Tree" in the rainforest village. On the path was this fallen, mossy, decaying tree that looked like a dragon.
Salmon berry flower and fruit.
Above; the world's largest spruce tree. A 1000 year old Sitka Spruce, it's 191" tall and 58'-11" in diameter!
Below; in wet regions, sitka spruce trees more successfully germinate and grow atop a fallen tree than on the forest floor. They send roots down around the rotting log and as the dead wood of the nurse log decomposes, the roots become more apparent like long legs for the living tree with the bole of the tree suspended in mid air.
Falls Creek waterfall before it feeds into Lake Quinault.
Above; our one little stop at the Pacific ocean side of the Olympic Peninsula.
Below; one of the many tall spruce trees in the Hoh rainforest.
The trees in the Hoh rainforest become buried in moss, sometimes adding more weight to the tree than the tree itself and breaking off limbs from the weight.
Sitka spruce trees in a "colonnade" after the nurse log has rotted away. (Click on panorama to expand.)
Tiny flowers growing among the moss on a decaying log.
Tags
coast (45), hike (4), log (1), macro (11), maple (1), moss (1), olympic-forest (1), panorama (2), slug (2), snail (1), spruce (1), trees (29), washington (2), waterfalls (4)
Arianna Helen