June 25, 2007

June 25, 2007

Saturday we saw the snow-capped peaks of Olympic National Park. Our goal today is to circle west seeing the other two ecosystems of the park, the temperate rain forest, and the seashore. The route is quite scenic. The road is lined with fields of Daisy wildflowers. We pass a very pretty Lake Crescent. The water is extremely clear and encircled by rolling hills of evergreen.

We reach the town of Forks and stop at the Tourist Office to use the Internet. Forks is the capital of the logging industry on the Olympic peninsula. Unfortunately the Timber Museum is closed on Mondays and we are too late for the 9am logging tour of the area. After discovering we are from Chicago one of the volunteers drags us on a little nature trail behind the office. He is a retired logging truck driver and tells us all about the trees and plants in the area. Aimee likes the yellow Salmon berries that are growing all along the trail. They taste like blackberries.

On the west side of the Olympic peninsula we drive back into the National Park to visit the Hoh Rain Forest. We join a ranger talk that is starting just as we arrive. This area gets 140 inches of rain a year and the trees grow like they are on steroids. A cross-section of a local tree shows almost quarter-inch growth rings. Western Hemlocks and Sitka Spruces dominate the forest. Most of the trees are dripping with hanging moss. Oddly we are having a sunny day in the rain forest although both of us are wearing raincoats just in case.

We continue our drive around the park, along the ocean, and stop in the town of Hoquiam, WA for the night.