Hoh River and Rainforest

— The beginning of spring also marks two important dates: the International Day of Forests (March 21) and World Water Day (March 22). With that in mind, I began searching through my photos to find one that could capture the beauty of these two days. I thought of several parks, but easily decided to use the photo above of the Hoh River with the Hoh Rainforest at Olympic National Park. I made this shot using three original bracketed images taken during our visit to the three national parks in the state of Washington. Olympic NP is approximately a million acres of wilderness. Its diversity of ecosystems makes this park unique in the USA. As described in the park official home page, Olympic NP has “glacier-capped mountains, old-growth temperate rain forests, and over 70 miles of wild coastline.” The Hoh Rainforest is considered one of the wettest locations in the USA. It receives over 12 feet of rain each year. As a result of that, hiking in the area offers lush greenery and unparalleled scenery. The unique colors in this area are hard to be reproduced on a photo. They are intense. The Hoh River, for example, has this bluish color because of glaciers melting in the mountains around the area.