Rainfall increases with elevation up the Sol Duc Valley, and the forest grows correspondingly lusher and more rainforest-like toward the valley head. Lower stretches near the highway are solid conifer forest, while the upper valley supports moss-heavy temperate rainforest. Runoff gathers in the Sol Duc River, which drains west to the Pacific.
That same river is still with you on the way down, only now it's pulling ahead, dropping faster than you are. Every drop in it fell as rain or snow up in the high country you've been driving toward. It gathers here in the Sol Duck, and from here it's a straight run to the Pacific. You and the water are headed the same direction now.
Photo: Olympic National Park (U.S. National Park Service) · Public Domain
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