Olympic Peninsula and Rain Forests

August 11, 2014

Sunny and dry - 80 degrees

Lat/Lon 47.28N 123.52 W

Lake Quinault and the Olympic Rain Forests

Olympic Peninsula, WA

Chawley and Elby (L Bea) check out the view at Lake Quinault

I found a sailboat.

The Quinalt rain forest averages 154" of rain a year. Thats over 12 feet of rain!
By comparison, Tillamook Oregon averages 87" a year, Seattle about 40", and Boise about 12" per year.

Fun Fungi

Sword ferns covering the bank above the trail.  You can see the trail heads off into that dark hole ahead.

Playing follow the leader.

This skunk cabbage, growing in a tiny creek, was about 3 feet across.  HUGE!

Pretty waterfall!  Look at all that moss and the ferns!

Closer view of the waterfall.

It was a pretty warm day, so splashing in the little creek at the foot of the waterfall felt pretty good!

BIG fallen snag

Pretty maidenhair fern.

Skinny squatch?

Another waterfall

The Little Pink Glasses made their first appearance in a long time.
I think the last we saw of them was in Arizona last winter.


I thought I saw Nancy, but as I got closer I realized this lady had gray hair. It was not pretty silver like Frosty's hair.

I love, love, love the forests in the Pacific Northwest!

BY THE WAY, (It's a little known fact,....)  moss and ferns are not parasitic plants like ivy and mistletoe.  They do not take nutrition from, or strangle, their 'host' tree.  They are epiphytes, meaning they merely cling to the rough surface of the tree to catch water and organic matter that falls from above.  Mosses and ferns don't harm the trees.
These are healthy trees.

Note: Ivy and mistletoe not only strangle a tree, but their modified roots bore through the bark, to the actively growing cambium layer, (outer layer), of the tree.  There, they tap into the tree's life resources, eventually killing it.

Now THIS is a Mossy Skag!!!  

(My family will get it.)

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In other news, another outing to the beach produced the closest thing to a 'squatch we've seen yet.

and we found this guy that I'm pretty sure was trying to contact aliens with this strange devise.

~ ~ ~

I'd like to take Charley to see Mount Saint Helens before we head north next Monday, but we will see what happens. Once we are up north, we're hoping to get a tour of the BIG Coast Guard base up in Port Angeles, from a retired Coastie friend. (Teri's brother in law.)  After that, we're not sure which direction we will go.  We will return to Boise at some point before we head to Casa Grande AZ to sell pumpkins and Christmas trees.