Day 5: Quinalt Rain Forest

On Day 5, we drove from Holly's house up the Olympic peninsula to the Quinalt Rain Forest and lake.  Who would think there was a rain forest in the U.S.  It is a temperate rain forest.

  It was a really fun day.  The weather was great.  The kids had fun exploring the rain forest.  After, we had a picnic lunch at the lake, surrounded by mountains.  We stayed there a couple of hours, just relaxing and playing.  Then we went to the see the largest sitka spruce tree in the U.S.  Sadly, my camera battery had died by then and I don't have a picture.  But I'll just say it was HUGE!  That evening we drove back to the Seattle area, to Derek and Alexis' house. 

 You can see how enormous the trees are compared to everyone--

Derek, Evan, Robert, Alexis, Matt, Greta and Gavin

 

 This picture also represents well the scale of the trees. This was the base of a tree.  See how big it is compared to Holly and Gavin.

 

 

 Five, little, speckled cousins--sittin' on a speckled log!

Adam, Evan, Gavin, Greta and Matt

 

 Derek and Adam standing in front of a fallen tree.  Amazing how big the root base is.

 

 

 Derek, Adam and Robert peering through a hollow log.

 

 

 I called this a fern wall.  The side of the hill was covered in ferns.

 

 

Adam is standing by a nursing log.  The tree on top has grown from a fallen log.  It gets it's nutrients from the fallen tree, thus it is known as a nursing log.