Olympic National Park is very large and covers many biomes. The real life of the place for me is the trees though. Driving along Hwy 101, you wind through clearcuts and replantings and then you are instantly midgetized crossing back into protected forests, towering above you, looking out over the centuries.

The trees in the western temperate rain forests just thrive. “Mild winters, cool summers and up to 12 feet of annual precipitation produce the giant conifers” that drip with moss. This is the Hoh River Trail, which will take you to the Blue Glacier on Mount Olympus if you keep going for its 18.2 miles and 4,400 ft of elevation gain.

These are the slightly dryer trees of the Sol Duc area.

New trees wrap their roots around nurse logs, anchoring themselves and getting the nutrients from the decaying wood.

The largest trees, of which there are some record holders in the park, become knotted and knarled. This is a large cedar near Ruby Beach.

Erosion has left this tree hanging on at the edge of the beach at Kalaloch.

At Rialto Beach, dead trees stand starkly between beach and forest.

Driftwood at Rialto