The Soggy Olympic Peninsula

I recently ventured to the Olympic Peninsula, parts of which are right up with the wettest spots in the continental US.  And, the rain was pouring down as I arrived at Lake Quinault.  The clouds shrouded the mountains and lent an air of mysterious tranquillity to the scene.

A giant Sitka spruce near the lake...one of the largest.

A waterfall rushes through the rainforest.

A trail through the rainforest near Lake Quinault accesses a magical world of lushness.  In the foreground is a swollen though sluggish stream, coursing through the forest.  Blow up the pic and it's evident the rain was pouring down.  I was trekking along with my umbrella.

The Olympic rain forest is the quintessential moss empire.

The rainforest trees grow beards!

Tree silhouettes

Another shot of the remarkable lushness.  A month earlier, I was in the Arizona desert near Phoenix.  Two more different landscapes cannot be imagined.  Each can be rigorous to us humans, but each is beautiful and interesting in its own way.

A mossy tree base.

Within an hour, I had reached the coast and driven out of the rain.  The shore at Olympic NP is strewn with logs, washed out of the rainforest by winter river floods and by storm waves that erode the cliffs backing the beaches, causing trees to topple into the ocean.

Massive stumps lie on the sand, while the living trees are sculpted by the wind.

This tree trunk exhibits massive gnarliness.

And, of course, a classic nurse log.

Late afternoon sun sparkles on the sea.  Destruction Island lies offshore to the left...home of the wind.