G.A.S.P.

The next day (8-20) I rode to the Hoh Rain Forest. Hap and Diane were also going there, but were leaving a little later than I, and Alexis and Konstantin were bypassing the Hoh Rain Forest and going to Quinault. The Rain Forest was nice, but it wasn’t raining – another nice sunny day on the Olympic Peninsula. The Hoh Rain Forest is the only temperate rain forest in the Northern Hemisphere. So just what is a temperate rain forest (as opposed to the better known tropical rain forest)? A tropical rain forest has its rain more evenly distributed throughout the year, while a temperate rain forest has a long rainy season and a fairly dry summer (Hoh only averages 3" of rain per month in the summer). Also, the temperature in a tropical rain forest tends to vary less, both day to day throughout the year and between day and night. A tropical rain forest looks much more like a jungle, while a temperate rain forest tends to have trees that are taller and bigger around, even though they do not form the same kind of canopy that is present in a tropical forest. The tropical forest has much animal life in its canopy, while most of the animal life in a temperate forest is ground-based. Also, the tropical rain forest has a greater variety of plant life, although the temperate rain forest may support more total living material.

According to information at the Park Visitor Center, there is a temperate rain forest at Hoh because of the following factors: a cool mountain mass (the Olympics), a nearby ocean (the Pacific), an ocean facing valley (the Hoh), prevailing on-shore winds (the Westerlies), and a protective barrier mountain range (the Cascades). All of this creates a special environment that receives 142" of annual rainfall, includes giant trees (Douglas Fir, Sitka Spruce, and Western Hemlock) and a very large amount of mosses, clubmosses, ferns and lichens. One large example is a Sitka Spruce by the road – 270’ high, 12½’ in diameter and 500 to 550 years old.