The Quinault, Queets, Hoh, and Quillayette are the four rivers that flow west from these mountains to the Pacific. The Hoh River begins at the Hoh Glacier high on Mount Olympus then flows nearly 60 miles to the ocean. You hear the river before seeing it, the great rush of water flowing through a broad, flat valley before it reaches the ocean.
These large, old trees block sunlight from reaching the forest floor. Their branches are draped in clubmoss, which in turn create microhabitats for licorice fern and other rainforest life. When one of these great trees falls it becomes a "nurse log," as it decomposes ferns, tree seedlings, and other plants take root and grow in the sunlit forest gap.
The largest remaining herd of Roosevelt elk live high in the alpine meadows in summer and beneath the lowland forests in fall and winter feeding on ferns, lichens, and clubmosses. In the cool forests along the Hoh River the elk feed on sword ferns and red alder bark. Five elk rested in these "elk pastures" just off the trail, their heavy browsing on the ferns visible.
Just off the Spruce Nature Trail a large bull elk rested near two cows. The size of his antlers and girth of his neck far outmatched two smaller "bachelor" males sitting farther down the trail. The protection of this subspecies of elk was the main reason that Olympic National Park was established in 1938.
The Olympic Peninsula is a natural marvel of mountain peaks, subalpine meadows, glaciers and rivers, coastal beaches and tide pools, and inland rainforest. Outside the boundaries of the Park and other protected areas, the complex natural communities are gone -- displaced by extensive logging, over fishing, dams, and other human uses. The National Parks preserve remnants of nature -- breathing, living, flowing, evolving.
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