A rain forest in the Pacific Northwest of the USA? Washington State is far from the tropics, and I have always associated rain forests with equators, hot weather and steam. I plan a visit – laced with a good deal of skeptism – after our romp around Hurricane Ridge.
Twenty minutes down the mountain we drive from the snow-crusted high-altitude of Hurricane Ridge. The Olympic National Park guide promises a rain forest walk close by. What do they mean, I wonder? Are they just tickling my fancy? Why am I wearing a jacket to a rain forest? There is still a layer of snow on the underside of my tennies. I think a public affairs person has gotten a bit over-enthusiastic with the details of this brochure. Rain forest? We’ll see.
I have to settle for the small rain forest walk near the Hurricane Ridge Visitor’s Center just outside Port Angeles, because the roads to the park’s Hoh Rainforest are still closed because of snow. Snow. I am still suspicious that winter weather and ferns can co-exist. We’ll just see.
We park at the visitor’s center lot and follow a racing group of twenty-somethings who are chattering with excitement. Where are they going in such a hurry? Why the rush? They are pursuing the call of warmth and hanging vines with greater confidence – and enthusiasm – than I. They must be rain forest believers, and I decide I want to believe, too. They scoot up and over fallen logs and along a creek in their race to touch this natural dream. Perhaps they are hurrying to follow another hiker’s spotting of a drip off a fern in a gully of steam. There might be one, just one, in this lip of a forest off a road to ever-lasting snow.
The young people scurry on, taking a fork in the pathway toward a work camp. I decide they already know much about this area, and take on their confidence for myself. If they have found a rain forest here, then I might also. I stay on the path that promises ferns and mist and hanging moss.
Up and down into the ravine, the old growth begins to show itself. Slips of sun bring warmth and shy rays of brightness. The green of the plantlife and the cozy red-brown of the mulched ground lay around me with the comfort of cool mists and soft light. It isn’t a hot rain forest, but here it is, with its light-hearted coolness splattered about with fresh but humid air. I seem to walk through one after another – first cool mist, then sun-warmed air. No wonder growing things do their very best work here. It’s soothing and quiet and just exactly right in its temperate comfort.
I am happy enough to slow down and take in what nature is providing right up close: ferns, lichen, moss hanging from trees, cooling steam rising from a downed lodgepole pine as the sun warms the bark. Proof of rain forest.
I am convinced. Maybe it’s not exactly the biome I used to teach my third-grade students. But it is magical and it is here, unbelievably close to snow in the early summer of the Pacific Northwest.
Please join the Monday Walk with RestlessJo and friends:
Amazing, is it not? 🙂 🙂 I love those ‘shy rays of brightness’. Thanks so much, Susan. Wishing you a lovely weekend!
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RJo – this little walk surprised and delighted me. So glad you came along. Best of today (and tomrrow, and the next..) to you, too!
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Thank you 🙂 🙂
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Oh ye of little faith! (I’d have been sceptical too). Lovely walk.
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Anabel – Yes, my faith was restored, and in the loveliest way possible 🙂
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Yup, we have temperate rain forests on the west west coasts of Wales and Scotland.
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Hi Big Garden – thanks for stopping by. I envy you those temperate rain forests – cool, wonderful growing climate – without the humid heat. Good gardening to you 😉 – Susan
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Though I lived in Seattle for several years, I never traveled acorss the Puget Sound to the Olympic Peninsula. I understand that it gets a lot of rain from the Pacific storms, thus it has rain forest status. – Cuz-O
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A magical place! We didn’t spend any time in Seattle on this trip, but from what I hear, you may be excused for staying inside the city, with its many, many wondrous sites 😉
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Such an awesome place and a really unexpected one, Susan! I’d love to explore the Olympic National Park and experience that rainforest. Do I need a guided tour for there or I can explore on my own?
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Agnes – You can tramp around the forest on your own! You’ll need to pay an entrance fee (or buy a park pass good for all US National Parks) and pick up the printed trail guides at the park headquarters. The employees usually have great advice about which trails are best. Hope you get there and enjoy the beauty!
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Thanks for the get-away! I needed that.
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Hugh – glad I could help. I’ve been trying to take a break from it all, also. ;))
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