THE Trip - Day 12 (Rain Forest)

When I was younger and would I hear the words “rain forest”, I immediately thought of exotic, mysterious, adventure…and South America’s Amazon basin.   When I was at Disney World for a conference once, I even ate at the Rain Forest Restaurant – but that doesn’t count.  One of my BIG objectives on this trip was to see the rain forest in the Olympic National Park.  Today that goal was met…and it was great!!

The weather forecast was for 50% chance of showers, but we reached our starting point on the Hoh River with sunshine and a wide variety of clouds in the sky. 

About half way through our hike as it started to rain, we were beside the river and the first rain drops left wonderful patterns on the river rocks.

 

The lichen, moss, and epiphytes (plants that grow on trees with just air, water, and sun for sustenance) create amazing effects as they co-exist with the spruce, fir, hemlock, maple trees, and all types of ferns and ground cover plants.  Everywhere you look there are trees with pretty solid furry coats, as well as others with lacy, fringy shawl coverings. 

 

 

The rain forest is quiet as the sound is muffled by the moist ground coverings – making even the rain sound like a waterfall as it fell between the needles and leaves on the trees – and it can be quite dark as much of the sunlight is heavily filtered by the towering trees.

 

It seemed appropriate to do a good part of the walk in the rain forest in the rain.  This didn’t dampen my spirits or pleasure at all for being in such an exotic spot as a rain forest.  Then the rain ended and it was just beautiful with the sunlight coming through.

 

As we headed back to Port Angeles, we passed out of the rain forest by Crescent Lake with the sun at full strength.  Overall….a splendid day.