Short Trips: Washington's plush, mossy welcome mat

Thursday, July 25, 2002

By JEFF LARSEN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER PHOTOGRAPHER

To visit the Hoh Rain Forest in the Olympic National Park is one of those special Pacific Northwest experiences.

A big part is the change in environment that occurs on the 19-mile Upper Hoh Road, which heads due east into the rain forest from U.S. Route 101, about 13 miles south of Forks. Like few places on Earth, you travel from a marine coastal environment to a temperate rain forest in a matter of minutes.

The change isn't subtle either. The drive is a complete metamorphosis. The farther you drive toward the Olympic Mountains, the darker it gets because of the thickening mantle of branches over the road. Soon the road becomes almost tunnel-like as the hanging moss, typical of the rain forest, becomes more apparent. You'll notice, too, that the trees get bigger the farther you drive -- much, much bigger than trees at lower elevations.

	Moss drapes over a tree next to a small stream in the Hoh Rain Forest. Jeff Larsen / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Click for larger photo

Once you pay the $10 entrance fee at the National Park Service gate and head in, you officially are in the Hoh Rain Forest. The road, a little rough and dusty in spots because of construction, flanks the magnificent Hoh River most of the way to the visitor center and campground. There are a number of pullouts for fishermen and tourists. The river is relatively high and cold this month because of glacier melt. It actually gets warmer during the winter months, when it is fed by heavy rains.

On my way in, as if it was scripted for me by the park service, a large herd of elk decided to graze alongside the road a couple of miles from the campground. Other motorists armed with cameras bailed out of their cars and joined me when they spotted the elk. Soon the road was lined with adults and children snapping pictures as the herd munched its way through the tall underbrush.

Visitors must remember, however, that Olympic National Park is not a petting zoo. The elk are very wild, very large animals. On behalf of the elk, Ranger Liz Rhode supervised the impromptu roadside viewing to make sure the tourists didn't get too close to the herd, and vice versa.

But there's always one.

A man tugged on Rhode's sleeve and asked if it was OK if he could pet one of the elk. She told me that at first she thought he was kidding, but she said he looked disappointed when she politely but firmly told him no.

Rhode said the rangers refer to the 30 to 35 elk as the campground herd because of its frequent grazing visits to the area. She emphasized that the animals tolerate humans in close proximity pretty well, but are temperamental and can get mean -- especially females with new calves -- if people get too close.

	A herd of about 30 to 35 elk hangs out around the Hoh Rain Forest campground during the summer. Photos but not petting are allowed. Jeff Larsen / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Click for larger photo

After the Elk and tourists dispersed, Rhode summed up the Hoh Rain Forest best: "Yep. Elk, trees and moss -- that's what we've got."

Her definition of one of the world's most complex ecosystems might be a little simplistic, but it works. The Hoh Rain Forest has all those and more.

All three of the park's temperate rain forests -- the Queets, Quinault and Hoh river valleys -- are on the west-facing flanks of the Olympics. Besides being protected from development, they have one other thing in common -- rain, and plenty of it. The ecosystem actually runs along the coast from Oregon to Alaska. Other temperate rain forests are found in only a few very isolated places in the world.

Jerry Morris, a park service volunteer at the Hoh Visitor Center, starts his daily 1 p.m. tour of the Hall of Mosses nature trail with an eye-popping number: "It rains an average of 140 inches a year in the Hoh Rain Forest and that's not counting the fog" of which there is plenty. Most of the 30 or so out-of-state tourists gasped in unison.

It rains so much because Pacific Ocean weather disturbances are corralled by the Olympic Mountains, which rise virtually out of the ocean. As the air is pushed up, it cools and dumps rain in huge quantities on the western flanks. (About 80 miles away in Sequim, on the other side of the Olympic range, it rains an average of 15 to 16 inches a year because of the "rain shadow" effect. That's about the same amount of rain as Los Angeles gets.)

So if it rains during your visit to the rain forest, don't be disappointed -- it's supposed to. It drizzled during most of my visit but was hardly noticeable.

Besides watching for elk, be sure to stop and see "the big spruce" on your way to the visitor center. It's visible from the road. "Big" doesn't seem like a very scientific way to describe the tree, but it's 270 feet tall, with a circumference of 12 1/2 feet, and the description does it justice. Sitka spruce is the dominant tree in the rain forest and some can grow to more than 300 feet tall and 23 feet around.

The visitor center is a well-crafted building that blends in well with the rain forest surroundings and is staffed daily through Labor Day by knowledgeable rangers, naturalists and volunteers. It has an excellent selection of books, most of which deal with the natural environment of the Pacific Northwest, including plant and tree guides that add to the identification plaques found along the nature trails.

	Justin Borthwick, 15, from Reno, Nev., carries his cousin, 13-month-old Claire Barsotti, past an exposed root structure of a giant spruce along the Hall of Mosses trail in the Hoh Rain Forest. Jeff Larsen / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Click for larger photo

When you arrive, check the bulletin board for the nature trail tour schedule and interpretive events.

Accessed from the visitor center are three nature trails: the Mini-Trail, a short paved loop through the nearby old-growth forest; the Hall of Mosses, a slightly longer trail that winds through the old growth; and the 1.2-mile Spruce Nature Trail that loops through the forest to the Hoh River. All are easy walks for the whole family, and the Mini-Trail and visitor center are fully accessible (the park service term for wheelchair accessible).

Along with 30 other tourists, I took Jerry Morris' 90-minute tour of the Hall of Mosses nature trail, which gives visitors probably the best cross-section of the rain forest ecology. From towering Douglas firs to huge bigleaf maple trees draped with yellowish-green moss -- the quintessential rain forest picture -- Morris described how the parts of the rain forest ecosystem coexist.

To illustrate, he passed around a brittle sample of lichen, an organism that's a combination of a fungus and algae that's commonly found in patches on many of the rain forest trees. It's one of more than 3,000 species of plant life in the forest.

In our tour group, all but two were from out of state. A couple from St. Louis, Bob and Sheila Mueller, called the rain forest "unbelievable." Bob said Sheila was "a big moss fan" and that's why they decided to visit. He also said that if you're from out of state "you really have to do your research to find this place."

According to estimates, more than 200,000 people find the place each year, making the nature trails some of the most used in the park.

July and August are usually the heaviest tourist months. Rangers recommend September to see the rain forest because of the changing colors of the foliage and fewer visitors.

The campground, which is open year-round at $10 a night, has 88 sites, fire pits with grates, picnic tables, potable water, restrooms with flush toilets, animal-proof food storage lockers and an RV dump station. It's walking distance from the visitor center. The campground is very tent friendly and close to the Hoh River as well.

If you go...

Olympic National Park -- Visitor information, 600 E. Park Ave., Port Angeles, WA 98362; 360-565-3130; general park information,www.nps.gov/olym/, or www.nps.gov/olym/edurain.htm.

 

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P-I photographer Jeff Larsen can be reached at 206-448-8150. For personal e-mail contact: jefflarsen@seattlepi.com. For general releases: shorttrips@seattlepi.com.

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