Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
A Peaceful Lake and a Magical Walk in the Rainforest – At Lake Quinault
Earlier this week we spent a few days at Lake Quinault and once again fell in love with the calm and beauty of the lake, and the magic of the rainforest.
It was a perfect time to visit the Quinault Valley. We spent our days exploring and found giant trees – including the largest Sitka Spruce in the world –
and waterfalls at the end of easy hikes with no one else on the trails.
It was all wonderful, but our favorite was the Maple Glade Rainforest Trail, where we saw giant maples dressed in green garments, fringes hanging from their arms, ferns at their feet, streams flowing through, reflecting back their glory.
“Drenched in over 12 feet of rain a year, Olympic’s west side valleys flourish with North America’s best remaining examples of temperate rain forest. Giant western hemlocks, Douglas-firs and Sitka spruce trees dominate the landscape while ferns and moss cloak the trees and forest floor. In these valleys, even the air seems green.”
National Park Service Website
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I hope so.
But I doubt whether pictures or words can adequately convey the beauty of the rainforest.
If you ever have the chance, please go see this magical place for yourself.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 
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I am very envious of your idyllic trip, Susanne. Lovely photos of course.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thanks so much, Pete. It’s a special place indeed! 😚
Really beautiful pictures, very peaceful. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks so much for stopping by. I’m glad you enjoyed the tour of Lake Quinault. 🙂
Wow–I’ll have to find that place. That lodge (?) alone looks amazing, but the outdoor shots—so nice!
Thanks so much! Yes, Lake Quinault Lodge is a classic and open year-round. And you will love the entire Olympic National Park, forest, mountain, beaches and all! 🙂 🙂
Stunning…nature showing off its majesty…and what a tree trunk! Incredible photos! I love that you have so many incredible places in the wild so close!
Thanks so much, John! That remarkable tree is a thousand years old and almost 200 ft high! Honestly, I never cease to be amazed by the rugged beauty of Washington state, and the Olympic Peninsula remains one of my favorite places in the world! 😍
Lovely photos, Susanne. Glad you had a good visit there.
Thanks, Graham. It was a wonderful getaway. 😊
That first one is another optical illusion. You could put all these optical puzzles in one place just for fun as you find them.
Good idea. The lake was so still I got many pictures with mirrored reflections. They are all a bit mysterious.
I remember Lake Quinault from when I lived in Washington three decades ago. So happy to see it has not been overdeveloped or overrun. I’d visit again but my significant other is what you might call an indifferent traveler, plus, you know, all of the pandemic precautions still in place. So I’m very happy to experience thse places again but vicariously through your lovely photography – thank you!
So glad you enjoyed the pictures. It’s still quite rugged and remote in the Quinault Valley and almost no visitors during winter. So it was a perfect (and safe) getaway! 🙂