The Grove of the Patriarchs
Near Ashford, Washington
In the southeast corner of the park, cradled on a small island in the middle of the Ohanapecosh River, grows a forest that time nearly forgot. It is called the Grove of the Patriarchs, and the trees here are among the oldest and largest in the entire Pacific Northwest. Towering western red cedars and Douglas firs rise on this island, some of them more than a thousand years old.
They are towering trees, and the greatest of them are enormous around at the base. The river is the reason they survived. By isolating the grove on an island, the water shielded these giants from the wildfires that swept through the surrounding valleys over the centuries, letting them grow to ancient size while forests around them burned and regrew.
For generations, visitors reached the grove by crossing a narrow suspension bridge that swayed over the clear green water. But flooding destroyed that bridge, and the island trail has been closed. The park service has talked of building a replacement, so that once again people can walk quietly among trees that were already ancient when Europeans first set sail for this coast.
