Olympic National Park is located in the northwest peninsula
of Washington State. Its 1,442 square
miles encompasses mountains with glaciers, rainforests with some of the world's
largest trees, and about 10 miles of beaches.
We decided to take a day trip to the Quinault Rain Forest at
the southwestern edge of the park where some of these trees are located.
Our first stop was to go to the world's largest western red
cedar. We looked for a sign for the trail
to the tree, but this was all we found.
By the brochure directions, we were fairly sure we were at
the right place so we pulled off and parked and started hiking up the trail.
The trail was narrow, steep and full of roots.
The trees in this forest are huge.
And the fern ground cover was everywhere.
Several portions of the trail had very tall steps to climb.
The forest was beautiful.
When we reached the world's largest western red cedar tree, there was no information sign but
we were sure we were at the right place because the trail ended about 30 feet
past the tree...
...and the tree was
huge!
The tree was so big you could step inside of it,
look up through the top of it (which had been broken off),
and walk into it and see out through the bottom of it.
Even though the top has broken off, the tree is still
alive because there were several green branches growing out from it.
With a 63.5' circumference, 19.5' diameter, and 174' tall,
the world's largest western red cedar is one big tree!
After talking with some other folks also admiring the tree
for a few minutes, we carefully headed back down the trail over the roots and
over the tall steps.
We passed this tree that had fallen over. I tried to lift it but it was a little too
big for me. :)
At the bottom of the trail, there were some other really big
trees.
Wait, is that Sasquatch at the bottom right of the picture?
No, it's just Sas-chuck.
:)
After leaving the world's biggest western red cedar tree, we
drove to a picnic area for lunch. We
parked the car and walked up around the trails to find the best spot to eat our
picnic lunch. The trail meandered
through the picnic area in different directions and by Quinault Lake.
These big trees scattered throughout the picnic area.
We finally decided on picnic table right in the middle of
these huge trees.
The trees may be huge but the squirrels are very small.
After lunch, we drove a little further up Northshore Road to
the Quinault Rain Forest Ranger Station and hiked Maple Glade Rain Forest Trail. The trail is a .5 mile easy level trail.
The ground cover of the forest was lined with ferns here too...
...and the trees were covered with moss.
The moss gave the trees and the forest a creepy
appearance.
And there were some really big trees here too!
As we walked back to the car, we commented how it is
starting to look like fall with the deep blue sky and some of the leaves
beginning to turn.
We had nearly perfect weather today with not a cloud in the sky.
We drove further up the Northshore Road,
crossed a bridge over the Quinault River,
and then drove down
the Southshore Road.
We passed by this pretty waterfall on the side of the
road. (It was a lot taller than the
picture indicates.)
We kept looking for the sign for the world's largest spruce
tree but we must have missed it because before we knew it, we were almost back
at Hwy 101. So we turned around and
drove to where it was supposed to be on the map and found a sign for it on the
lake side of the road.
After a short walk, there it was, the world's largest spruce
tree.
The circumference of this tree was slightly smaller than the
western cedar, but it was still very, very, very BIG!
I asked Chuck to take my picture sitting on the big
tree roots.
That was a mistake.
I got pine sap on my pants and then when we tried to get it
off, we got tree sap on our hands. We
thought we were never going to get it off of us!
Even with the tree sap, we had a great day and it was so
cool seeing some of the world's largest trees!
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