Probably one of the most insane, crazy, wild, beautiful, stunning, etc., places we saw was the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic. It's along the Hoh River (the Hoh are an indigenous tribe that refers to themselves as the chalat') and holy ball sac, Batman, however green you think these photos are, is nothing compared to how green it actually is.
Because most of the groundcover is a thick layer of moss, when trees drop their seedlings, they can't really penetrate the soil. So as the tree grows, it doesn't take solid root, and from time to time, a completely healthy tree will fall over. It takes about a year for the bark to fall off and in that timeframe, if the seedlings from a Sitka Tree land on the fallen tree, a small percentage of them will begin to take root. The tree that fell is referred to as a nurse log, and in its death, it aids the growth of new life. In some cases (as you can see in one of the photos) some trees will grow in a straight line because of the decaying nurse log. Within another 2-4 years, the nurse log will be almost nonexistent, and some of the roots of the Sitka Trees will be several feet out of the ground.
It's certainly a sight to see, and it's inspired a lot of new art from me. I'm not saying we'll be moving to Washington, but I'm not "not" saying that, either. We'll definitely be visiting again.
Now...back to sharing art with you.
