One hike that Aaron had been looking forward to was the Hoh Rainforest. The pacific north-west is home to a number of temperate rainforests that are the most densely populated ecosystems in the world. The average rainfall for the Hoh Rainforest is 150 inches of rain a year. For those of you in the Bay Area, Oakland gets 23 inches a year. Portland, for all your claims of gloom, you only get 37 inches a year. Seattle, which is a little closer to the park gets about 38. You're probably wondering what the highest average is - Mt. Waialeale, Hawaii gets 450 inches annually. So it rains alot in a rainforest, go figure.
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The Hoh was big, green, and dense. What a different experience from the mountain top experience of Hurricane Ridge. We camped the night at the trailhead and started the day walking through the Hall of Mosses, where supposedly the most spectacular species could be found. It's worth seeing, but we were much more impressed by the Hoh River Trail, 17.5 miles along the river. We hiked five of it and then turned around to keep from hiking at night = ten amazing miles!
The amazing part of being in such a dense ecosystem is how plants use every square inch of growing opportunity. Most of the trees have roots that look like octopus legs that hold them up off the ground. As young trees (seedlings) they took root on top of a fallen tree, and as they grow, their roots wrap around these trees on their way to the soil. Eventually they grow to be thick and strong and by that time the fallen tree decomposes and leaves a distinct tree-trunk shaped space between the other trees legs. There's also ferns, moss, lichen, and fungi fighting for a space of their own. So of course - NUMEROUS pictures. Aaron eventually ran out of room on his memory card.
The amazing part of being in such a dense ecosystem is how plants use every square inch of growing opportunity. Most of the trees have roots that look like octopus legs that hold them up off the ground. As young trees (seedlings) they took root on top of a fallen tree, and as they grow, their roots wrap around these trees on their way to the soil. Eventually they grow to be thick and strong and by that time the fallen tree decomposes and leaves a distinct tree-trunk shaped space between the other trees legs. There's also ferns, moss, lichen, and fungi fighting for a space of their own. So of course - NUMEROUS pictures. Aaron eventually ran out of room on his memory card.
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don't you love love love Olympia? we stopped by this summer and loved it.
ReplyDeleteTotally. Everything square inch of the place is captivating, except for the square inches in Forks. That place is creepy. I'd rather sleep in the darkness of the forest than a minute in that place.
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