The Hoh Rain Forest: A World of Green
Near Forks, Washington
The Hoh Rain Forest, about thirty miles south of Forks at the end of a long road into the mountains, is one of the few true temperate rainforests remaining in the world. It receives somewhere between one hundred forty and one hundred seventy inches of rain per year in its deepest reaches, making it one of the wettest places in the contiguous United States. That water sustains an ecosystem of astonishing density and age.
The dominant trees are Sitka spruce, western hemlock, and western red cedar. Some of them have been growing for hundreds of years. Sitka spruce in the Hoh can reach heights of three hundred feet, and the base of a large specimen can exceed fifteen feet in diameter. The forest floor beneath them is covered in multiple layers of fern, sorrel, and moss. The mosses are everywhere: on the ground, on every fallen log, on the branches overhead, hanging in green curtains from the limbs of the big-leaf maples. The Hall of Mosses, a short trail from the visitor center, is one of the most photographed natural sites in Washington, a grove of maples draped so heavily in moss that the trees appear to be wearing green coats.
The Hoh River runs through the valley, carrying glacial meltwater from the Mount Olympus icefield down to the coast. The river supports one of the finest wild steelhead and salmon runs remaining in the Pacific Northwest. The Hoh Tribe, whose people have fished this river since before recorded history, continue to exercise treaty-protected fishing rights in the valley today. The quiet of the Hoh, broken mainly by birdsong and river sound, makes it one of the least-noise-polluted places in the national park system.
