The Pacific Ocean at Last!

We finally left the sunshine of Sequim for the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula and its rain forests. It turned out to be a glorious day, one of the few of pure sunshine all the way down the coast. Highway 101 first winds its way around Crescent Lake, a lake created by glaciers and an avalanche:

Along the shoreline were many madrone trees (Arbutus menziesii), native to the Northwest.  The tree has a smooth red bark that peels.  The wood is a beautiful red.  When we visited the wood turner a few weeks ago in Bellingham, he was turning bowls of madrone wood and said they were his most popular because of their unique soft red coloring.

What I noticed most as we drove south was all the logging that was going on. The hillsides look ravaged, with acres and acres of land that had been logged at various times. Only the Olympic National Park had tall trees. We saw filled logging trucks going the other direction  every 5 to 10 minutes or so. It made me wonder if this much logging is done when housing starts are slow, how much logging is done when new houses are being built at the normal pace??   It has made me more determined to use sustainable bamboo as much as possible. These logged forests are not a pretty sight, leaving thousands of acres of denuded and desecrated landscapes. I remember, when I was young, driving through miles and miles of tall tree forests, and the experience was entirely different, of shade, quiet, coolness and mystique. I can not help but wonder if this much logging affects the climate of the area. Is it warmer here now because of all the exposed ground, and is there less rain because the tall trees aren't there to catch it?

This first photo was taken in the national park, where logging no longer occurs.  This area was probably logged at one time, since these trees are not very wide or tall, indicating they are less than 100 years old:

Following are various stages of growth after logging occurs:

 

It saddens me to know that so many ancient trees are now gone and can never be replaced.  We will continue to log our forests long before the replanted trees ever reach 100 years old, let alone 3000 years old.  All the better reason to protect the older trees in our national forests.

We finally reached the Pacific Ocean after three months on the road. So beautiful, and so nice to see it again after all these years!

The next day, a rainy day, we drove to Quinault Lake to see an original rain forest, unlogged, and filled with giant trees. The western forests of the Olympic Peninsula receive over 12 feet (not inches!) of rain a year. The ocean provides the moisture, and the mountains cause the clouds to form and the rain to fall. I didn't mind the rain, as I wanted to see what a rainy day in a rain forest feels like. I wanted the whole experience!

Look at the ferns growing on the tree below!

There were several small waterfalls in the valley, near the road:

In the Quinault Valley are six "champion" conifer trees, the largest of their kind in the world. Amazing!! They are one each of the following: the western red cedar; Sitka spruce; Douglas fir; yellow cedar; mountain hemlock; and western hemlock. We were able to see the red cedar and Sitka spruce, as they were close to the road. The others are seven to fourteen miles on wilderness trails. It would be impossible to see them all in a day. Below is the largest Sitka spruce in the world, with me standing on its roots. This tree is 55' 7" in circumference, 17.68' in diameter, and 191' tall:

The western red cedar is 63.5' in circumference, 19.5' in diameter, and 174' fall. It was too dark to get a good photo, but I was able to take some inside the tree. It is hollow, but still living. This specimen is the largest tree in Washington, and the largest tree in the world outside of California!

Here is the base of the tree.  It was difficult to get the full width, since I couldn't back up quite far enough to fit into the camera's view finder:

This is inside the tree, looking up:

We next spent two nights at Cape Disappointment State Park, named by British Captain John Meares in 1778,  27 years before Lewis and Clark arrived at the some spot.  The first day was sunny, so we walked down to the beach with our chairs to sit for awhile, but not long because although the tide was receding, and the water was 30 feet away, a rogue wave swept in, got my shoes wet, and when I lifted my chair to save my good Nikon camera, it fell into the water and has not worked since (augh!! I love my camera!).  But the smart card is still good, so I was able to download the photos that I had taken before the wave swept in. 

I should have known.  The Pacific Ocean is powerful and is so loud it roars in good weather and bad.  One should never turn one's back on the Pacific Ocean.  Don't get me wrong - I love the Pacific Ocean!  I love it's roar, it's galloping manes of white froth, it's crashing strength against the rocks.  Power and beauty all at once.

Note all the logs at the top of the high tide line on the beach.  These logs exist on all the beaches, and one has to be careful of them, especially when the waves come in and lift them up as if they were toothpicks.  The Corps of Discovery encountered logs like these on the Columbia River and on the seashore.  Back then, Clark says the logs were up to 200 feet long and 7 to 8 feet wide.  Today the logs are much smaller, because the larger trees were logged a century ago. 

In Clark's journal, he mentions camping on logs that would rise and fall with the tides, very near the mouth of the Columbia River.  It was like camping on a raft. His men had to secure everything all their belongings to the logs so as not to lose anything. Unfortunately the Corps was forced to stay there for a few days because of the whipping winds, driving rain, and tumultuous waves, very typical of the area.

Yesterday evening, we took a very long walk on Long Beach, which claims to be the longest beach in the world.  I don't know if this is true, but it is very long.  We couldn't see the northern end from our location.  Lewis and Clark walked this beach over 200 years ago.

The waves made perfect diagonal patterns in the sand.  How do they do that??

Once again, a sunset:

On Friday we visited the Lewis and Clark Exploration Center at the southern end of Cape Disappointment.  It was a wet and blustery day, just as the Corps of Discovery would have experienced it.  We were there near the end of October whereas the Corps arrived in mid-November, so it was likely much colder.  I took these photos from inside the center, protected by glass windows, but I could hear the howling wind:

The exhibit was very good, with reproductions and quotes from the original journals; scale models of the various boats, including the keel boat (originally 55 feet long and 8 feet wide) used on the Missouri.  The canoe at the top is modeled after those used by the Native Americans of the Northwest as described by Lewis and Clark.

Below is a model of one of the dugout canoes (originally twice the size), roughly hewn by the Corps after crossing the Bitterroot Mountains:

There were also reproductions of the botanical specimens collected by Lewis.  Both the Academy of Natural Sciences and the American Philosophical Society were mentioned in the exhibit.

 

The specimen above is the dull Oregon grape, Mahonia nervosa, which I highlighted in a previous post.

A second exhibit highlighted the numerous ship wrecks that have occurred at the mouth of the Columbia River, where there used to exist a large sand bar that constantly shifted positions.  The Peacock, a ship on the Wilkes Expedition (the U.S. Exploring Expedition, which included Academy scientists), ran aground here in 1841 on what became known as Peacock Spit.  In modern times, jetties have been constructed to keep shipping lanes open.

Do you see what I mean? So much to do, so little time!!