Chasing The Big Trees of Olympic National Park

Did you know that Olympic National Park is home to some of the largest trees in the world? I didn’t until I found this brochure in the lobby of Lake Quinault Lodge, where we stayed on our recent trip. Of course we went chasing the trees.

Largest Sitka Spruce in the World!

Just a few minutes drive from the Lodge, we found the giant Spruce after an easy walk through the rainforest.

We crossed a footbridge and saw its massive girth reaching high above, its trunk looking like a prehistoric monster.

The Largest Western Red Cedar in the World!

This proved to be more challenging to find as we looked on the north side of Lake Quinault for the one listed in the brochure and learned it had been toppled by a storm. Not to worry. On our travels the next day we found two other giant Cedars that seemed to be vying for the title.

We found The Duncan Cedar down a narrow, winding, gravel road and according to the sign it’s the winner.

Honestly it didn’t look like a Cedar tree to me with its strange shape and lack of bark. But I guess if you were 1,000 years old you’d look different too! Anyway, it was still alive and had green growth so who am I to complain? We found the other Cedar looking rather strange too, a previous record holder that lost its standing when it was split in half by a storm.

Many of the other record trees were too far into the wilderness to get to easily. But we saw so many other beauties on our walks that it didn’t matter. So I’ll close with this Douglas Fir that we found standing tall and proud on The Rain Forest Nature Trail.

And that will do for today. 🙂

~ Susanne