Big Cedar Tree

As far as sounds to fall asleep to and wake up to go, the lapping of the Pacific Ocean is not bad. Our spot at Kalaloch Campground was right on the Pacific coast and offered an excellent view of the ocean to complement that sound.

After breaking camp, we took a few quick hikes to see Big Cedar Tree and Quinault Rain Forest. As can be seen in the middle picture, the tree is in fact very, very big. Big Cedar Tree is an excellent example of nature reaching its fullest capacity in the absence of human interference.

The rain forests in Olympic National Park are the only rain forests in the contiguous United States and also the place that receives the most annual precipitation. However, due to the latitude of the park, these are temperate rain forests as opposed to tropical rain forests found in South America. Sadly, this also means that there are no monkeys habitating these rain forests.

South on the 101 towards more America...