Rain Forests

We had a great time in the rain forest last weekend! So amazing. Otherworldly, even.

Here's Emily in the Hall of Mosses, in the Hoh Rain Forest

Also saw some big trees, like this Cedar:



Most of our fun was in Olympic National Park, which also includes a strip on the ocean:

Ruby Beach

The surf sounded so cool because of all the rocks--take a listen (you can hear the water pulling back from the rocks at about 3/4 of the way in):

(Sorry for the clunky player; guess my coding's getting rusty...)



Emily is getting pretty good with her camera phone:




The best part was definitely the rain forest, though. Every inch of it seemed to be green and growing. Trees covered in moss and fern, growing out of other dead trees. Even this:



Couldn't have done it without our awesome REI parkas and water-proof hiking boots. It rained literally the entire weekend (they average 12 feet per year! feet!), but we were comfy and dry the whole way through.

And we saw two herds of elk...


Speaking of wild animals on the Olympic Peninsula: we were so close, we pretty much had to at least spend a little time in Forks:


So many pictures! If you want more, check out the whole set on Flickr. In the meantime, here we are outside the Lake Quinault Lodge:


And one more big tree:

World's largest Sitka Spruce.