Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Quinault Rainforest – Olympic National Park
Did you know there are four temperate rainforests in Olympic National Park? They’re the Hoh, Quinault, Queets and Bogachiel. The most popular is the Hoh and that’s the one we’d visited on prior trips to the National Park. But the Quinault Rainforest is every bit as beautiful and our stay at Lake Quinault Lodge gave us time to explore it on trails that were mostly deserted.
One of my favorites was the Maple Glade Trail. We found it near the Ranger Station on the north side of the lake where we’d gone looking for the world’s largest Western Red Cedar. More on that later.
The walk through the rainforest under giant moss-drenched Maples was refreshing and peaceful on a hot summer day.
It also intersected with the Kestner Homestead Trail which took us to a clearing and an early homestead from 1891. We tried to imagine living in such an isolated location, deep in the woods, with 12 feet of rain per year!
We wandered the grounds and I stopped to watch the hummingbirds. They didn’t look like the Anna’s I have in my garden; most likely they were Rufous Hummingbirds that visit from April to October.
Afterwards we headed down the road with a stop by July Creek for a short walk to the lake. Here we caught glimpses of the Olympic Mountains and the Lodge on the other side.
On our way back, we continued to look for the big Cedar tree but there were no signs anywhere. Eventually we found a ranger and asked him about it.
”Not there anymore,’ he said. ‘Came down in a windstorm back in 2016.’
We were obviously disappointed and he offered to take us there anyway. Only the top was gone he said, and he wanted to see the condition of what remained himself; there were also many other giants in the same area though it might be dangerous getting to them.
‘No thanks,’ we told him. We’d look for the others.
‘Did you see the Sitka Spruce yet?’ he asked. ‘On the south side of the lake. Its the largest in the world.’
Yes, we had, the night before, not far from the Lodge.
But I’ll save that for the next post.
Until then,
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 
Love the history – great photos as well!
Thanks John! Lots of unique things to do and see there. 🙂
That’s a great walk, and lovely to see the hummingbirds.
I once lived in the top half of a house in London that was built in 1890. It was a lot more substantial than that cabin, fortunately. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
Thanks Pete. And I bet you didn’t have to worry about bears or cougars dropping by! 😊
I’ve been mesmerized by the beauty of Olympic National Park ever since I remember. It’s one of the places I would love to visit one day. Seeing Hurricane Ridge, Rialto Beach and the scenic lakes would be a dream come true. Thanks for sharing such beautiful photos, you made my day 😀😀😀 Aiva
It’s one of my favorite places! I’m thankful it was preserved for all to enjoy! I love Rialto Beach too! This time we went to Ruby Beach which I’ll share in a later post. Thanks so much for your comment. 🙂
I love the photo of the trees with all the moss! I can’t imagine living somewhere with 12 feet of rain per year, especially back in those days!
I love the mossy trees too! And I do wonder about families putting down their roots in the wilderness!
Absolutely beautiful photos. I especially love the ones of the trees. The lighting is such that at first they looked like watercolors.
Thank you! I love the trees! 😊
Beautiful pictures with perfect commentary.
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Great post! I didn’t know the Pacific Northwest had such biodiversity. And, the photos are terrific! Thanks for the information!
Thanks so much for your comment. I’m glad you enjoyed it! 🙂