No graphic editing was done with these photographs. These are completely original.

In this photo: The Hall of Mosses...a crowned jewel in the Hoh Rainforest is easily accessible for anyone to hike up to. The beauty of a large stand of several HUGE Big Leaf Maple trees, convered in drapping mosses is flat jaw dropping. Beauty beyond compare, I highly recommend a visit to one of only a few old growth forests left. The Common Scissor Leaf Liverwort and the Cat-Tail Moss are represented here.

There are other mosses and lichens on the tree as well, as these trees carry just about everything you can imagine. But it's a symbiotic relationship as most of these (other than sheer weight over time) do not damage the trees...believe it or not. :-)

The western side of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state receives upwards of 240+ inches of moisture a year. The temperate rainforest's that result are some of the most spectacular and diverse in the whole of the Pacific Northwest. and a large part of the most extensive and impressive example of temperate rainforests in world.

This area is special because a large area was designated National Park (Olympic National Park) and thus protected from over usage of natural resources. The old growth forests here are hundreds to thousands of year old and have a truly primordial feel. A step into our past, it is well worth the visit. The quiet, the solitude, and the overwhelming amount of flora and fauna is without compare.

There are hundreds of varieties of true moss, clubmoss, peatmoss, liverwort, (yes, they are all different) and lichen in this area, some occur nowhere else in the world.

Rather than give a dissertation on every single of the above mentioned species (I'd be here for a long time) I will just mention a few of the noticeable variety that show in each image of this portfolio.

Check out the rest of my Northwest Rainforests Portfolio for more in this series! This is where I live....