Westward Hoh

Today the Hoh Rain Forest, with its giant Sitka Spruces and Douglas Firs reached its moss draped arms out and welcomed us. The welcome mat was the shadow painting the road from a towering 220 foot Spruce. The base of this tree measures 12 1/2 feet in diameter we read. We were very impressed.

Beyond the shadow lay the rain forest. We parked the van and set out on foot into a drapery of Bearded Club Moss and Licorice Moss. Every limb of every tree was dripping with green velvet or wrapped in shreds of green gauze. The mosses here depend on the trees. They are supported by their reaching limbs so that they may feed on the light, the moisture and the wind-borne nutrients in the air. The trees too are dependent, on each other. Seedlings depend on their ancestors to begin life. They take root in and feed on the nutrients of fallen, decaying nurse logs. As young trees grow they send their roots down the nurse log to the ground. After hundreds of years the nurse logs rot away leaving young trees standing up right, on stilt-like roots, all in a row. We could feel that sense of time and growth as we walked through the 'Hall of Mosses'. Seedlings were just taking root on trees that were as old as the earth.