Virgin Temperate Rainforests of the PNW

I'm the first to admit my blog is titled The Natural Treasures of Ohio and for the most part that's rightfully so.  But from time to time I think it's fun and healthy to step outside her lovely borders and explore other places and regions our infinitely beautiful country and continent selflessly shares with us.  One of the most memorable and unforgettable of those experiences occurred a few summers ago when I helped one of my best friends move from Ohio to the Seattle area.  We loaded up his car in late July 2009 and took two weeks to travel over 4,500 miles and visited numerous national parks and forests including the typical classics like the Black Hills, Yellowstone, Glacier, and Olympic.  To this day we still frequently reminisce about all the lasting memories and events of that epic road trip and tentatively plan our next.

Almost fittingly the most anticipated and eagerly awaited of our destinations, at least for myself, came last: the famed virgin temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, most specifically those on the Olympic peninsula.  I had long salivated at the idea of bearing physical witness to the grandeur and impossible dimensions of its ancient forest leviathans.  Trees were my first botanical love and sank their teeth deepest on that initial bite from the botany bug.  Even to this day they still have a special place in my heart that I dare say no other vascular plants can touch.  You just can't get the same level of satisfaction from hugging an orchid or lily that you can from a tree; although I can say I've never tried hugging my smaller, herbaceous cronies.

During my down time this holiday season I've found myself delving into old photograph folders on my computer and couldn't seem to look away from pictures taken during my time spent in those unique forest ecosystems and the monstrous trees that lay within.  So I'm here to take you back with me into those primeval coniferous wonderlands and share their unrivaled beauty.  It's the second best thing to being there and I hope by the end of this post most of you will be inspired to write the Olympic peninsula down on your bucket list of places you absolutely, positively must visit!

Lake Crescent on the Olympic peninsula in Washington state

Our journey to gymnosperm paradise started from the harbor town of Port Angeles on the northern end of the Olympic peninsula where we continued on U.S. route 101 west towards the mighty Pacific.  Not far outside of town we came across the first of many scenic photo opportunities in the gorgeous views of Lake Crescent.  The lake is widely known for its crystal clear, vivid blue waters that can be attributed to the lack of nitrogen in the water, which in turn inhibits the growth of algae.  After some quick pictures it was back in the car for the drive into the Hoh rainforest, one of the finest remaining temperate rainforests left on the planet.

Your blogger and an enormous Sitka Spruce

As we drove into the depths of the Hoh River valley it was hard not to notice the increasing size of the trees the deeper our car went.  In a moment I'll never forget, my eyes met one of the largest Sitka spruces still in existence along the side of the road.  At over 200' tall and 11 feet in diameter it easily dwarfs your blogger as he stands next to it in disbelief.

Better view of the massive spruce tree

The gargantuan spruce specimen is known as the Preston Macy tree, named after the park's first super independent.  Sitka spruces are unique in that they only grow along the Pacific coast from northern California to Kodiak Island in Alaska and rarely occur any further than 25 miles inland.  These endemics of the North American temperate rainforest have incredible growth rates supported by the perfect climate conditions.  It's not uncommon for sitka spruces to attain heights of 200+ feet in just a century's time!

Hoh River flowing down from the Olympic mountains

Above is the Hoh River as it carves its way down from the precipices of the Olympics Mountains just as its glacier predecessors did thousands of years before.  The Hoh is predominately fed by the melting glacial waters from the mighty ice sheets atop Mt. Olympus and is permanently stained grey from the pulverized sediment load it carries from the mountains to the ocean.

Skyscraper trees of the Hoh rainforest

The Hoh is one of the most prized tracts of remaining old-growth temperate rainforest to be found on the Olmypic peninsula.  Impressive coniferous forests of western red cedar, sitka spruce, western hemlock, coastal douglas-fir, and Pacific silver fir skyrocket into the heavens above.  These survivors of the ax and saw stand testament to the former grandeur of the Pacific northwest's forest ecosystem.

Evergreen canopies of the temperate rainforests of the PNW

Trees well over 200' tall and six to eight feet in diameter were hardly in short supply in the fertile valley of the Hoh River.  Up to 165 inches of precipitation (almost all rain) falls annually on this section of the peninsula and is what allows these trees to attain such unfathomable proportions.  Nowhere else in the world can you find such an incredible ecosystem than the Pacific coastline from northern California to Alaska.

My friend standing in amazement at the sight of such mighty woody beings

My friend Kevin looks hobbit-sized compared to the giants that abound around him.  Despite being a climax forest, things are hardly static in this type of ecosystem.  Many great titans of the past lay dead and decaying on the forest floor while trees of varying sizes race for the light above in a fevered attempt to take their fallen brethren's place.  It's not hard to get a kink in your neck from the constant staring straight up into the canopy trying to comprehend just how big these gymnosperm wonders are.

Roosevelt Elk drinking from a cool spring-fed stream

It's not just the large flora of the Olympic peninsula that draws the crowds but the mammoth fauna too!  Above is a male Roosevelt elk drinking from one of the many spring-fed streams bubbling through the forest.  Also appropriately known as Olympic elk, these beasts are the largest of the four remaining subspecies of elk native to North America.  Believe it or not it was actually these animals more than the trees that called for the creation of Mount Olympus National Monument in 1909, the precursor to Olympic National Park.

Another shot of the Hoh River

The immense amount of rain and ever-accelerating melt of the glaciers causes the Hoh to flood annually, carving new paths to the Pacific and carrying its load of granulated rock downstream.

Moss hangs on nearly every available surface

An interesting fact about the temperate rainforests of the Pacific northwest is they can have up to four times the biomass of comparable regions in the tropics.  Due to the extreme rarity of fire, both living and decaying matter builds up in trees, shrubs, ferns, mosses, soil etc; making these the most massive ecosystems on Earth.

Your blogger and an impressive coastal Douglas-fir

Out of all the trees I had the pleasuring of laying eyes on in the Hoh rainforest, I don't think any had the same effect on me as this one.  This is a coastal Douglas-fir reminiscent of its forefathers at over eight feet in diameter and 300'+ tall!  Don't believe me on the height, check out the next picture.

300'+ tall coastal Douglas-fir

I wish this photograph could do even half the justice this perfect tree deserves.  Before the logger's saws sank their teeth into these then-virgin forests it wasn't uncommon to see Douglas-firs like this growing by the thousands in nearly pure stands.  In fact, did you know that the redwood didn't always have the distinction of being the tallest tree species on the planet?  The Douglas-fir is the former height champion with some specimens being measured post-cut at over 400 feet tall! Wow!  What I wouldn't do to time travel back to see those behemoths with my own eyes!

Moss-covered big-leaf Maples under the mighty conifers

While the conifers clearly rule the forests of the temperate rainforests there are some angiosperms that call it home as well.  My favorites were the bigleaf maples, gnarled with age and adorned with carpets of hanging moss.  It wasn't unusual to see some of the maples over six feet in diameter with equally impressive spreading canopies.

Looking up into the gnarled bigleaf maples

Another shot of the moss-covered cathedrals of bigleaf maples.  Looking up into the twisted and ancient trunks and limbs made me feel like I was walking through Fangorn Forest of Middle-earth lore.

Kevin sitting under the flared buttress of a Sitka spruce

The flared buttress and stilt-like roots of this sitka spruce have a pretty neat explanation.  It's a pretty common practice for seedlings to sprout on the decaying logs of fallen trees called 'nurse logs'.  As time passes and the seedling grows, the nurse logs gradually decompose and eventually become mulch on the ground, in turn leaving the seedling (now a fully mature tree) with a gap in its roots as the only evidence of its former nursery.

Massive driftwood logs on the shores of the Pacific

Ah, on to the Pacific!  There's no other ocean shoreline on Earth like those of the Pacific northwest.  Don't be fooled by the picture above, those are the largest pieces of driftwood on the planet!

Shoreline of the Pacific along the Olympic peninsula

This was one of my favorite photographs I took during my time in Washington state.  I think it represents what the Olympic peninsula is known for quite perfectly.  The evergreen coniferous forests overlook the majestic waters of the Pacific as the ghostly skeletons of former trees abound on the sandy shores.

Your blogger and arguably the largest Sitka spruce in the world!

I decided to save the best pictures for last to really drive home the point of just how BIG some of the trees are out here!  I promise there is no photoshop tomfoolery in this photograph.  That's really myself standing with the world champion sitka spruce; at least according to the American Foresters point system.  It measures 191 feet tall, nearly 19 feet in diameter, with a circumference of 58'.  That is nothing short of incredible if you ask me!  I don't think I've ever felt so small in my entire life, at least at that moment.  It's believed to be over 1,000 years old and is still alive and kicking.  I certainly hope to repay this tree a visit at least once more in my lifetime.

World champion western red cedar

Ready for another world champion?  If you thought that sitka spruce above was large, how about this record western red cedar!  While it only measures 174 feet tall (hard to believe I'm using the word 'only'), this goliath is just shy of 20 FEET in diameter and nearly completely hollow at its base!  Outside of California and its redwoods/sequoias, this is THE largest tree on the face of the Earth by volume!

World record western red cedar

Unfortunately, this tree is barely clinging to life with just a few top sprouts and side branches keeping it alive.  Then again at 2,000 years old you'd be lucky to look that good too!  This cedar will still be standing long after its demise as this species is well known for its resistance to rot and decay.  The western red cedar is the only other species of Thuja native to North America and is a close relative to Ohio's native white cedar (T. occidentalis).

Your blogger and the champion western red cedar

This champion lives in the world-famous Enchanted Valley, otherwise known as the Valley of the Giants, near Lake Quinault on the western side of the Olympic peninsula.  Sheltered from the most severe of the elements in the valley and a ways inland from the ocean, this tree is a testament to what Mother Nature can do when given the time and opportunity.  About a dozen or so 'super cedars' as I like to call them still exist in select areas of the Olympic peninsula and coastal forests of British Columbia and Vancouver Island in Canada.

Second-growth Sitka spruces

All the moss, ferns, and dampened air/soil gave the air a very raw and earthy smell.  Mixed with the spice of the surrounding conifers it really was one of the most refreshing aromas to ever grace my olfactories.

Pair of lovely Sitka spruces

The few days I spent in the magical wonderland of massive trees and beautiful coastline only whetted my appetite for more and I really hope to comeback to this wonderful place for even more exploration and neck-kinks sooner than later!

Sunset over the still waters of Lake Quinault 

I'll leave you with a final picture of the sun setting across the still waters of Lake Quinault from the shoreline of our campsite.  While I never got a good picture of it, just behind me was a massive red cedar tree that split into three trunks about ten feet up, leaving a nice-sized flat area in-between that was the perfect place to sit back, relax, and enjoy the sunsets as I basked in the experience of a lifetime...

Exploring South Manitou Island Part I

 *Be sure to check out part two of this series by clicking RIGHT HERE!*

An ancient Chippewa Indian legend tells the tale of how the Manitou Islands came to be.  The story goes that a mother bear fled from a great forest fire in Wisconsin with her two cubs and swam across Lake Michigan to the Michigan shore for safety.  Upon reaching the shore the mother climbed a steep bluff to await her cubs arrival.  The cubs, exhausted from their long swim, were lost to the great lake and never made it ashore.  Filled with grief the mother bear waited day after day for the cubs on the steep bluff until her final breath.  The Great Spirit Manitou marked her final resting place with the Sleeping Bear Dunes and raised North and South Manitou Island from the depths of Lake Michigan in remembrance of where the two cubs perished.  Today these geological wonders still stand where the Great Spirit placed them for generations of people to come and experience the beauty and wonder of northern Michigan.

 

Located about ten miles offshore from Glen Arbor in Leelanau County, Michigan sits South Manitou Island in the chilled aqua waters of Lake Michigan.  If you are curious where exactly in Michigan this area is located here is an easy way to give you a good idea where to look on a map.  Stick out your left hand with your palm facing out.  Kinda looks like the outline of the state, right?  Focus on your pinkie fingernail, that is Leelanau County and just off the left side of the tip of your pinkie are the Manitou Islands.  Sure, you could have just jumped on Google maps and typed it in but I think my way is more fun and original.  Only a bit over 8 square miles in area, what this island lacks in size is more than made up for with its natural history and long list of incredible sights.  As mentioned in my earlier post on the Pitcher's Thistle, Leelanau County is one of my favorite summer memories from my childhood and even now as an adult.  A couple summers ago I spent two days and a night backpacking and exploring this remarkable environmental gem and would like to take you back there with me to get a first hand look at just how unique a place this is.  So make yourself comfortable and enjoy the pictures and journey this post takes you on.  Here we go!

Map courtesy of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (U.S. NPS)

 

Above is a map to reference whenever I talk about a specific part of the island (don't forget to click on the pictures to see them in bigger, greater detail).

North Manitou Shoal Lighthouse

 

 An hour and a half long ferry ride from Leland, Michigan is the only way to get to the island if you do not have a capable boat of your own.  The ferry is loud and slow but with the lake breeze and warmth of the morning sun on your face along with the sights make for a bearable trip out.  Pictured above is the North Manitou Shoal Lighthouse with our destination the blob of land on the left.  Built in 1935 to help ships make the perilous voyage through the Manitou Passage safely, it now sits in solitude as a roost for numerous Gulls, Cormorants and Terns.  The Manitou Passage has long been considered one of the most dangerous areas in all of the Great Lakes.  There are over 50 known shipwreck sites in the area around the Manitous and many are popular diving spots.  As you can see from the map above the eastern side of the island curves to form the best natural bay and harbor to be found in-between Chicago and the Straits of Mackinac.  Many a ship was saved during the 19th and 20th centuries from the violent and deadly storms Lake Michigan is fabled for.

*Note*  Since this trip was made over two years ago and I never planned on writing a travel blog for it I will do my best to use what pictures I took to the best of their advantage.  If I could do it all over again I would take much more specific photographs of the different areas and features of the island to better show off what I'm talking about.

So with that said let's take our first steps into the wilderness.  I started off walking along the southern edge of the island in a general westerly direction.  This course takes you through the woods all the way to the perched dunes at the western edge of the island.   In the mid-1800's South Manitou's forests fueled the boilers for the hundreds of steamships that sailed through the area.  This heavy logging caused the island's virigin forest to be all but gone before the turn of the century in 1900.  Only a small area in the southwestern corner was never touched, but we will get to that later in the post.

American Basswood

White Birch

The island today is covered in a second growth forest that resembles in species make-up the forest that prevailed the settlers.  The flora and forest type of the island falls into the same categories as the rest of the northern Great Lake states with a few exceptions.  Under the Northern Hardwoods banner, South Manitou's forests change subtly in areas and are dominated by American Beech (Fagus grandifolia), Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) and Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) with a strong association of Yellow Birch (Betula alleghaniensis), White Birch (B. papyrifera), Northern White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis), American Basswood (Tilia americana), Ash (Fraxinus spp.) and the occasional Red Oak (Quercus rubra) on the interior of the island.  The coastal areas of the island have many of the aforementioned trees but also contain White Pine (Pinus strobus), Red Pine (Pinus resinosa) and Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana) with many White Birch and Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) mixed in.  With the clearing of the land for cordwood for the steamers came homesteads, farms, livestock fields and orchards for the early settlers.  When the farms failed the land was allowed to succeed back to its current forested state.  Signs of their occupancy can still be seen throughout the island today.  A few houses and barns in varying stages of decay and ruin are scattered amongst the fields and forests.  Also serving as evidence of those who came before are a number of species of non-indigenous plants left to grow on the island.  American Chestnut, Mulberry, Black Walnut, Apple, Cherry and Pear can still be found growing "wild" amongst the native vegetation.

Aralia racemosa

Clintonia borealis

Despite the clearing of the original forests on South Manitou, the island still enjoys a very lush, diverse and rich aray of herbaceous species.  Some of the species many of you from our home state of Ohio would be very familiar with such as;  Large-flowered Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum), Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens), Wild Leek (Allium triccocum), Canada Violet (Viola canadensis) and Spikenard (Aralia racemosa).  Most however are either not found in our state or are very rare like the species from the picture above; Bluebead-lily (Clintonia borealis), which is an endangered species in Ohio.  Another rare species in Ohio that is commonly found as a ground cover on the island is Canadian Yew (Taxus canadensis).  A few more species found on the island include; Northern Bush-honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera), Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus), Red Baneberry (Actaea rubra), Striped Maple (Acer pensylvanicum) and Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis).  I wish I had photographs of these species but there's always next time.  Many of the plants I saw were among the largest I am likely to ever see, especially those of the woody 'shrub' variety such as the three native Aralia species and Canada Yew.  The reason for this is there are no grazing mammals living on the island to eat back and keep all the new growth at bay.  White-tailed Deer were introduced to North Manitou island but never to the South which has caused the degradation to the native ground cover and herbaceous species of the North island.  Many species found on South Manitou are no longer to be found on its larger neighbor due to this unfortunate decision to release the deer several decades ago.

Eastern Garter Snake

 

Perhaps the only reptile on South Manitou Island is the Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) and boy are they everywhere.  It seems every couple of steps one would go slithering away into the underbrush.  This one was kind enough to pose for a photograph or two even if he does seem a bit perturbed.  Making your way along the southern edge of South Manitou about half way across the island is the only inland body of water, Lake Florence.

Lake Florence, the islands only interior body of water

 

According to a limnological investigation done by the University of Michigan Biological Station, Florence Lake is only 26 feet deep at its maximum and has an overall mean depth of only 10 feet.  Watermarks around the shores indicate water levels have a tendency to fluctuate.  Due to there being no inlet or outlet sources on the lake and the lake sitting at an elevation lower than that of Lake Michigan, the water level is directly controlled by the water level of Lake Michigan itself.  Another interesting fact about Florence Lake is that despite its relatively small size in area, its watershed drains nearly 50% of the islands land surface (rain/ground water runoff).  Many different species of aquatic plants grow in and along Lake Florence.  Species from the genus' Carex, Scirpus and Potogometon were the most common observed.  

The rusting wreckage of the Francisco Morazan

 

As mentioned earlier, the Manitou Passage is famous for its many shipwrecks spread throughout the area.  The most famous and noticeable of all the wrecks is the 1960 grounding of the Francisco Morazan.  After dropping off cargo and getting reloaded in Chicago, the Francisco Morazan was headed for the Netherlands when on the night of November 29th in a terrible snowstorm it ran aground on a shallow shoal just off the shore of South Manitou.  All of her crew survived and were rescued without much difficulty and the wreckage was left to rust in her shallow, watery grave.

The once prized ship is now just a roost for passing seabirds

 

After leaving the shoreline and the ghostly remains of the Francisco Morazan you are not very far away from entering the most enchanting and memorable section of the island...the Valley of the Giants.  A small, ancient virgin grove of Northern White Cedars on the southwest corner on the island contains some of the oldest and largest of their kind on the planet, including the former national champion.

Virgin White Cedar forest

Ancient White Cedar tree

While these pictures cannot truly give these mammoth and ancient trees the true justice they deserve it can give you but a small taste of one of the rarest ecosystems in the country.  It is believed that the remote location of the grove as well as the proximity to the dunes is what allowed this magnificent masterpiece of nature to survive to this day.  Sand from the dunes forever mixed into the bark and grain on the wood would quickly dull and ruin the loggers saw blades is one hypothesis or perhaps the lumberman didn't have the heart to take down all the mighty monarchs of the forest.  Whatever the reason may be, let us be forever thankful it survived.  With heights reaching 100 feet tall and girths 3-5 feet in diameter, it's not everyday you get to see a forest like this in today's world, let alone one of this type of tree.  

The fallen former national champion White Cedar

On a sad note, here is what remains of what I believe to have been the former national champion Thuja 

occidentalis.  Almost six feet in diameter and nearly 100 feet in height, I wish I could have stood next to this behemoth to give you a size comparison.  The trees of this size in this grove have been aged using a corer to count the growth rings.  The largest ones have been growing for over 500 years!  That's incredible to even think about.  I've seen 500-1,000+ year old trees out in Washington state but to see something like this back east is mind blowing.

Your blogger and a huge Cedar!

Virgin White Cedar forest

I can't wait until I get the chance to get back to this place and really explore this area of the island more.  The 40 acre virgin grove is a very well-mixed aged stand.  There are many seedlings and saplings patiently biding their time to reach the lofty goals of their ancestors as well as many cedars of a more normal size filling in the holes in the canopy.  This time-tested forest is slowly weening itself of its largest members and will one day not have the same visual affect on visitors as it does today.  Several rare and threatened species of plants make their only homes on this island in this secluded grove as well.  Walking Fern (Asplenium rhizophyllum) and Green Spleenwort Fern (Asplenium viride) are both threatened species in Michigan and are both part of very disjunct populations on South Manitou.  Green Spleenwort is not found anywhere in the lower peninsula except for South Manitou while the Walking Fern is found in only two other counties in the L.P. but both populations are well over 100 miles away.  How these ferns got to the island, who knows?  The Large Yellow Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens) can also be found in the secluded haunt of the ancient cedars.

I think I have had enough for one post!  Up next is the climb up the perched dunes to the top of the island for one of the best panoramic and beautiful views I've ever seen!  Hope you have enjoyed the first part, I will be sure to post the follow up sometime in the next day or so.