Just north of the Kalaloch campground, off Highway 101, the Tree of Life is a mature Sitka spruce that has clung to a bluff over an open, cave-like void for decades, its roots bridging empty air where a creek washed the soil away. It has been slumping for years and could collapse at any time, so ask at the visitor desk whether it's still standing before you go looking. Standing or fallen, it remains one of the park's most striking sights and a story about what roots can hold.
Just up the beach from the Kalaloch campground stands — or stood — one of the most photographed trees in all of America. Picture the spot before you go looking: a low bluff above the sand, the bank crumbling a little more with every storm, and a worn path where folks have walked out to gawk at it for years. I'm going to be straight with you about this one, because it comes with a catch. The tree has been slowly losing its long fight, and it may at last have come down. So before you set off after it, stop in at the visitor desk and ask whether it's still standing today. Either way, don't be disappointed — because its tale isn't about how it looks right now. It's about what this tree did, year after impossible year, clinging to the edge of that eroding bank. Boone's the one to tell you that. Stay where you are, and let him.
Photo: Sven-the-Green · CC0
The Tree of Life, also called the Tree Root Cave, is a large Sitka spruce just north of Kalaloch Lodge that appears to defy gravity. A small creek and decades of erosion have hollowed out the bluff beneath it, leaving the tree suspended across the gap with much of its root system exposed in mid-air over a cave-like hollow, yet still green and alive. By every expectation it should have toppled long ago, which is exactly why it has become one of the most photographed curiosities on the Olympic coast.
You will find it tucked below the Kalaloch Campground bluff, only a short walk from a beach staircase, with the spruce bridging two eroded banks above the little creek that drains to the sea. Storms, surf, and steady erosion keep widening the gap, and the tree has shown signs of decline in recent years, so its days are genuinely numbered. Visit gently: stay back from the fragile, undercut bank and do not climb on or under the exposed roots.
- • Getting there: it sits just north of Kalaloch Lodge below the Kalaloch Campground area, off US-101 about 35 miles south of Forks; reach it via the beach access staircase near the campground.
- • Time needed: 15 to 30 minutes; it is a quick stop, often combined with the Kalaloch beaches.
- • Tides: easiest and safest to view around lower tides when you have beach to stand on; check a Kalaloch tide table.
- • Fees and pets: Olympic National Park pass required ($30 per vehicle, 7 days). Leashed dogs are allowed on this Kalaloch beach stretch.
- • Note: the bluff is actively eroding and the tree is fragile and declining; stay off the undercut bank and the roots, and do not count on it being there indefinitely.