Washington coast

One of the more popular places to experience on a hike in the Olympic National Park in Washington state is the Hoh Rain Forest. It is one of a handful of temperate rain forests in the Northern Hemisphere that are in a protected area. Much of the forest in the surrounding region has been logged in the last century, and many areas still show the scars of uprooted trees. This makes the Hoh Forest that much more sacred.

The forests proximity to the Pacific Ocean brings an average of 140 inches of annual rain to the forest and mist adds another 30 inches each year. A visit to the Hoh in the summer is the driest choice – only four inches of rain falls in June on average. We walked the trails for several miles and though there was evidence of moisture everywhere, we had only a few drops fall on us.

This is surely one of the greenest places I have ever seen. Bright green everywhere I looked.

Dungeness Spit

North of Olympic National Park and the city of Port Angeles, Washington is a National Wildlife Refuge called the Dungeness Spit. The refuge’s main attraction is a 5 1/2 mile long spit that stretches into the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Puget Sound. At high tide, portions of the spit are only 50 feet wide and are occasionally breached by the tides. The bay side of the spit is a calm harbor, and provides safety for baby seals and other sea creatures.

In the background are a few of the peaks in Olympic National Park. Some have glaciers, some mountains still have snow as it is still early in their “summer season.”

The spit is a wild place to walk, first a half mile walk through old growth forest hanging with mosses and filled with ferns, then a scramble down a cliff, and finally out on the spit for more scrambling over rocks and huge driftwood logs. What a majestic bit of wilderness!

Hoh Rain Forest

Dungeness Spit

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