The forests on the Olympic Peninsula are, in a word, dense. Light barely creeps through the conifers to the ground, ferns and shrubs create an impenetrable layer of undergrowth, and in some places, the trees bend over the road and create a natural tunnel. As I drove through these woods back to the main road, my phone dinged. I had received a text alerting me that I had arrived in Canada. Not quite, GPS. International rates will not apply.
A leisurely morning of driving brought me to Forks, Washington. I think this is where the vampires lived in Twilight—couldn’t tell you for sure, that’s not my scene. I did not see any supernatural events, nor did I go to the Twilight Forever Museum, but I did get a pretty good, reasonably priced burger at the drive-in. A welcome start to my return to the road.
Just down the road, I spent an enchanting few hours in the Hoh Rainforest, which receives 140 inches of rain every year. The trees are coated with mosses and lichens, and I finally caught a glimpse of a few banana slugs, which have one lung and 27,000 teeth. The density of the woods continues here. The only space available on the forest floor for new tree growth is on top of other, fallen trees called nurselogs. Even after the nurselogs rot away, the roots remain elevated and visible, giving the giant, centuries-old trees even more character.
I continued south again, taking a beautiful detour to Ruby Beach, where rock spires explode from the surf and tree trunks are tossed about as driftwood. I followed US-101 to Aberdeen, where I initially planned to stay the night. Unfortunately, it’s a bit skeevy, so I’m forging onward to a new location. Tomorrow I’ll break into Oregon.
Wow! Those two locations today are so different. I’m not sure about any place without sunlight, but rocks!! Very beautiful!
You found the rain forest that eluded Jeff and me back in 2018. I think we just did not spend enough time there at the park. We did find a beach that looked a lot like Ruby Beach — lots of piled up driftwood and huge rocks. We did not see any banana slugs that trip, but when we visited Marc and Chrissy years ago near Seattle, we saw many huge slugs. Not sure if they were the banana slugs or not. They must crawl around all night long because in the morning everything was covered in slug slime. Yuk! Glad you are feeling up to traveling again. I am curious to find out what you will find in Oregon. Love, Grandma. PS You might not hear from Dave for a while because his wrist is hurting too much to type right now. He thinks it’s carpal tunnel or something like that.
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, America gets WEIRDER!