A short, flat 0.3-mile round-trip gravel path off South Shore Road in the Quinault rainforest leads to the World's Largest Sitka Spruce. Roughly 1,000 years old, the tree stands about 191 feet tall and measures close to 59 feet in circumference. The level walk passes through fern-and-moss rainforest understory and is accessible to nearly all visitors.
Pull in here, because a giant is waiting just off the road. This is the short walk to the World's Largest Sitka Spruce, only about three tenths of a mile round trip on a flat gravel path off South Shore Road, with next to no climb, so just about anyone can make it. You step into rainforest understory, ferns and moss crowding the path, the air cool and damp. And then there it is. A tree roughly a thousand years old, standing about a hundred and ninety-one feet tall and measuring close to fifty-nine feet around the base, so wide it takes a whole group with arms outstretched to ring it. Crane your neck upward and the crown disappears into the canopy before you ever find it. This is the kind of tree that makes you go quiet. It's a quick easy stroll, no excuse to skip it. Get out and go stand at its foot for a minute, or stay in the car and we'll roll on down the road.
Photo: Kimon Berlin (KimonBerlin) · CC BY-SA 2.0
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