THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST: WASHINGTON AND ORGEGON PART 1 OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK I have much to thank my father and mother exploring the Pacific Northwest. Dad introduced me to climbing and Boy Scouting, and with together we joined the Seattle Mountaineers climbing course when I was 14 years old, and completed both climbing courses. At 15 in 1962, I was fortunate to have climbed the major volcanoes: Mt Rainier, Mt Baker, Mt St Helens and Mt Adams. My grandfather and fathers love for the outdoors from fishing and hunting to canoeing and hiking fueled that desire to learn more of our Lords Creation. As a teenager I was fortunate to have climbed in the North Cascades, worked as a summer cooks helper in the Mountaineers summer outing north of Stehekin in Park Creek, and at Holden Village for two summers, climbing peaks around me, most of the time solo. I grew in my passion for finding wild areas and documenting them, buying my first Argus C4 camera at age 15, and photographing film from Bonanaza peak and Glacier Peak wilderness area into Mt Buckner and Mt Booker in the north Cascades. Over the decades I finally shared these experiences with my children, now adults who carry on the exploring tradition. These are images of the Cascade and Olympic Mountains I grew up documenting. OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK Olympic National Park in the Pacific Northwest is part of the world’s largest, pristine temperate rainforests extending from Oregon to SE Alaska, and which supports a large diversity of plants and animals. The park protects 1442 square miles (3735 square kms), encompassing three distinctly different ecosystems: rugged glaciated mountains and alpine meadows, wild Pacific coast, and magnificent old-growth temperate rain forest. These three ecosystems contain a unique array of habitats and diversity of plants and animals, the result of thousands of years of geographic isolation, and extreme gradients of elevation, temperature, and precipitation The Olympic coast is rugged, with rock headlands interspersed with cobble and sandy beaches adjacent to primary forest 60 miles (97 km) long but just a few miles wide. Coastal forests are blasted by prevailing westerly winds and sand often leave these sentinels flagged, with branches on just the protected leeward side. Large trees provide nesting sites for the marbled murrelet, and nesting bald eagles perched on the battered treetops. Along the pristine beaches are a jumbled mass of drift logs that originate erosion rivers in primary forests: the Quinault, Hoh, Queets, Sol Duc and Bogachiel. Here meandering river geomorphological processes including floods undermine the forest, then deliver fallen trees to the ocean. The western side of the park is mantled by temperate rainforests, including the Hoh Rainforest and Quinault Rainforest, which receive annual precipitation of about 150 inches (380 cm), making this perhaps the wettest area in the continental United States. In contrast to tropical rainforests and most other temperate rainforest regions, the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest are dominated by coniferous trees, including Sitka Spruce, Western Hemlock, Coast Douglas-fir and Western redcedar. Mosses coat the massive limbs of these trees forming curtains of green, moist tendrils. Bigleaf maples in the rain forest are covered with epiphytic mosses, ferns, and spike-mosses growing on their trunks and branches. The lush forests in the Quinault, Queets, Hoh, and Bogachiel valleys are some of the most spectacular examples of temperate rain forest left. These rain forests once filled southern Oregon to southeast Alaska, but little remains outside of protected areas. Other temperate rain forests I have been privileged to explore include coastal southern Chile, New Zealand and Yunnan China and the Three Parallel Rivers UNESCO world heritage site of Yunnan, China, the area of greatest temperate plant diversity in the world that includes western Myanmar. Over 1,450 types of vascular plants grow on the Peninsula, and in addition hundreds of species of non-vascular mosses, liverworts and hornworts. From massive conifers over 20 stories tall, to minute clumps of pink Douglasia prying a life out of rocky peaks, the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic National Park boast an amazing diversity of plant life. Olympic National Parks valleys emanating from the eastern side of the park along Hoods Canal also have notable old-growth forest, but the climate is notably drier. Sitka Spruce is absent, trees on average are somewhat smaller, and undergrowth is generally less dense and different in character with salal and native Rhododendron Rhododendron macrophyllum. Wilidlife: Along the coastal strip offshore, whales, dolphins, sea lions, seals, and reintroduced sea otters feed in the Pacific Ocean. Invertebrates of countless shapes, sizes, colors and textures inhabit the tide pools. The major rivers within Olympic National Park support the healthiest runs of Pacific salmon outside of Alaska. Over 300 species of birds live in the area at least part of the year, from the alcids and penguin-like rhinoceros auklets , murres, guillimots and Tufted puffins offshore to golden eagles that nest inland adjacent to alpine forests and peaks. The park is a refuge for species dependent on old growth forests, including some species protected under the Endangered Species Act such as spotted owls, marbled murrelets and a variety of amphibians. The primary forest and rivers support river otter, raccoons, beaver and mink, live mostly in the lowlands. Black-tailed deer, elk, cougars and black bear range from valleys to mountain meadows. The wildlife community of the isolated Olympic Peninsula is unique not only for its endemic animals that include the Olympic marmot, Olympic snow mole and Olympic torrent salamander, but also for species missing from the Olympics found elsewhere in western cascades: Pika, ptarmigan, ground squirrels, lynx, red foxes, coyotes, wolverine, grizzly bears, bighorn sheep and historically, mountain goats, the latter recently introduced 4 decades ago. Olympic National Park and the upper Hoh River rainforest with almost 3000 species of vascular and non vascular plants. Olympic National Park is part of the extensive Temperate rainforest that extends from Oregon to SE Alaska, with high precipitation, and unique ecosystems that vary from the Pacific Ocean, Coast rainforest, and alpine. Top: Huricane Ridge and Mt Olympus, Mt Olympus from High Divide Quinault River Lake Quinault, Olympic elk cow, salmon berry, Rubiaceae Giant Sitka Spruce Quinault Valley, Olympic National Park Forest of Western red cedar, sitka spruce and large big leaf maple Water ouzel, Brown creeper, Red breasted sapsucker Pacific giant salamander, Oregon newt, western red backed salamander Harlequin duck, bald eagle nest coast, rufous hummingbird, Below: spruce grouse, red b nuthatch, varied thrush Top: great horned owl, Oregon junco nest in ferns, Spotted owl, black bear hurricane ridge Black=tailed deer, Bobcat Quinault river Olympic NP above and below Racoon, River otter Lutra canadensis commonly seen in the river systems, Re-introduced fisher Mountain Lion, couger by G Beyergbergen, Olympic elk Hoh river Bobcat, Quinault river flats Olympic elk bull with harem, Quinault River Lake Cushman area waterfall OLYMPIC COAST Rialto Beach Headlands Shi shi beach and distant headlands, several hour hike north of la Push Shi shi beach Olympic National park sunset Boardman State Park, Oregon coast .