This trip offered the chance to finally visit the Olympic Peninsula, something I've wanted to do for many years. [So warning, long post. Sort of.]
The Olympic Peninsula is the home of the Olympic Mountains [yes, one is named Olympus], the Olympic National Park, and Forks.
What is really cool, and the main reason I was interested in the area, is Rain Forests. The northwest coast of North America is home to about 2/3's of the world's temperate rain forest. Honest.
A lot of people don't even know there is such a thing, and several people don't even care.
Just look what a temperate rain forest can do to your average boring park telephone booth..........How cool is that!
It's such a succulent and fertile place that trees grow on trees.
And moss...
... lots of moss...
... lots and lots of moss...
... grows on trees.
And trees grow really big. Much bigger than they do when they don't live in a rain forest.
Like this one-
No, Loretta isn't having a bad-hair-day, those are the roots of a really big Douglas Fir blown over by the wind.
Even smaller trees are really long like these two Sitka Spruce trees that feel parallel to each other.
You can only see 60-80 feet of the branchless lower trunks, but the trunks continue in each direction. And these are not very large compared to others in the forest.
And talk about trees growing from trees...
... After they fall, some trees give themselves for the growth of the young'ens...
... and are called 'nurse trees'.
You can see 7-8 spruce that used the same old fallen tree to get going here a century or two ago.
The also have the Throne of the Mountain King there.
SEE!!!
Of coarse, rainy mountains have waterfalls too.
But the park also has beaches.
And lots of drift wood. [Not us, what we're sitting on!]
And the coolest Gnarly Trees ever!
And flowers-
And fauna.
And mountains [e.g. Mount Olympus] with glaciers.
Lots of mountains in fact.
And Forks. Loretta and I stayed in this charming little place near Forks.
"What's Forks?" some of you are asking.
If you don't know, well, you're the same as was before we got there. But Loretta knew, and the drink menu below will give you a hint.
What a great trip. I knew I always wanted to go there.
3 comments:
Wow - fantastic! Darrell, thank you for taking the time to post these blogs about our anniversary vacation. I love you - I love the photos - I love our time together - I love your creativity with this blog. Thanks sweetheart.
Ack! That drink menu is beyond awful. The names aren't even creative. They just slapped popular names onto whatever they're already selling. It's like buying bootleg action figures from China.
Twilight Drinks. *shudder*
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