Day 2 (Part 2)-The Hoh Rain Forest (a temperate rainforest)

Visiting the Hoh Rain Forest was actually the original goal of our trip. Everything else was added in as time permitted. The Hoh Rain Forest is a temperate rainforest, and I'm sure you'll see from the pictures that it is different from the tropical rainforest in many ways. I will not subject you to all the pictures I took, though I might end up showing you quite a few. :)

On our way into the park we saw some Elk sitting by the Hoh River. The Hoh River is very cold because it is glacier run off. It seemed pretty low when we were there. Maybe because they didn't have much snow in the mountains this summer.



This particular rainforest is know for its moss. It has the Hall of Mosses Trail where you can see as much moss as you ever wanted to see. :)



Everything was so big and beautiful; a picture doesn't do it justice.



I learned about nurse logs during this trip to the rainforest. Its very interesting. When a tree dies and falls to the ground it becomes a nurse log. Moss slowly covers it and then trees drop their cones/seeds into the moss. The seeds germinate and begin to grow trees right on the log. As the trees get bigger they spread their roots around the nurse log and to the ground for more nourishment. In the second picture its a little hard to tell, but that is actually a nurse log with a new tree growing on top of it.


This was the view from the road on the way out of the park. All of the trees were tilted in trying to get to the sun. It made a beautiful road covering. Oh, yeah, and we had to stop at the Hard Rain Cafe too. It was a funny little store. And according to the road sign you had to be careful because it was a "congested area." They had the stranges road signs in WA. :)