Hoh Rain Forest Part Two

J climbing on roots around a nurse stump.



Shelley taking pictures of A, bouncing through the forest.

D, then J, then A in the distance.

Can you see the monster in this tree with moss?

In the Hall of Mosses.

Shelley.

A and J.

J and D looking at a long log that fell in the forest.

Shelley, J and D in action! lol

This little boy came up and said, "Hi! I'm S-H-A-N-E! SHANE!" :o) All the kids had fun talking together.

A smiling for Daddy!

Tree fungus.

I tried to get a clearer shot of this, but there wasn't enough light. The rain drops looked like diamonds on these Oxalis leaves.

D walking next to a long nurse log. I remember when this log was just newly fallen in the 1980s. It was neat to see how it had changed in that amount of time.

Another view of the log. When the tree fell it cracked, right about at the end of where you see it in this picture and it goes down the hill a little.

A looking inside a hollowed log.

Shelley taking pictures of baby trees on a nurse log. They are 1/2" to 12" and of all varieties.

J and Shelley near the end of the trail. Tired girl needed Aunties hand.

When we entered the park they gave us warnings about the elk, which have charged some visitors, probably because they made pains of themselves and got up really close to them, close enough to threaten them. When we were leaving I told Shelley that I have never seen elk there even though I have been going there since 1974 (and many of those years, each year or even more than once) and have never seen an elk in the forest. We drove past the entrance and I looked to the river and this is what I saw:

This is on telephoto from a distance and through trees, so it's not the greatest shot, but it is a Roosevelt (Wapiti) Elk in the wild! He had a velvety 5 point rack and there was a buck deer grazing next to him, that looked like a baby in comparison.


After we took a couple pictures from the car, we drove on and stopped here to take pictures of the Hoh River. It was a good place to turn around, so I decided to go back and see if we could get a better picture.

It's still not a real clear shot, but isn't he gorgeous! By this time we had a group of cars who stopped to see what we were doing and so we enjoyed that camaraderie that comes when a group of strangers share an experience.

And this was the beautiful view God gave us as we left the park. But the day wasn't over yet. Stay tuned for our evening adventure of July 27, 2008!