Here US-101 turns inland from the coast toward the Quinault Valley, entering dense temperate rainforest. As the road moves away from the shore, the canopy thickens and the understory fills with moss and ferns, marking the transition from the coastal corridor into one of the wettest forest regions in North America.
Feel the road start to bend inland? The coast is sliding away behind you and the forest is closing in ahead, thicker and greener with every mile. You're heading toward Quinault, into some of the heaviest rainforest on the continent. The light changes first. It goes soft and underwater-green as the canopy climbs higher overhead, and the ground gets that deep sponge of moss that swallows your footsteps. Sound drops away. Even the air feels heavier, wetter, alive. Whatever you thought a forest was, the one coming up is going to be bigger than that.
Photo: Dog Walking Girl · CC BY-SA 3.0
