Leslie and David's Wanderings: 7 August 2019 Patriarchs and Silver

We were up early again this morning to beat the crowds. Our plan today was to hike the Grove of Patriarchs and Silver Falls trails. We had notice on our previous trips through Stevens Canyon that the parking lot of these trails filled up early and stayed full all day. So we arrived at the parking lot about 08:30 and got the last parking spot! Whew!

We headed for the Grove of Patriarchs first (1.8 miles, 69 feet of elevation gain, 532 calories burned). The trail follows the Ohanapecosh River (which starts as snow and glacier melt on Mt. Rainer) through a forest of younger growth (compared to the Patriarchs) until you cross over on a cable suspension bridge to an island. The bridge swayed and bounced as you crossed over the river and we could only go across one at a time. On the island is one of the remaining fragments of northwest old growth forest. Some of the Western Cedar and Douglas Fir trees on the island are over 1,000 years old and are over 200 feet tall! The trunks are over 20 feet in diameter. Standing next to these ancient trees, craning your neck to see up them, makes you feel small, insignificant and humble. They are incredible! The giants that have fallen act as nurseries for new trees. New trees start to grow on the decaying trunks of the ancient giants. We counted one ancient truck that had 14 trees, each over a 100 years old already, growing on top of its slowly decaying carcass. Its hard to imagine that man clear cut the forests of these massive trees in just 100 years! Just cutting down one would be a huge undertaking using just axes and handsaws. These trees have survived multiple eruptions of both Mt. Rainer and Mount Saint Helens in their life times. These trees give you a new appreciation of the time span at which Mother Nature works her miracles.

Returning to the parking lot, we crossed over the road and followed the trail down to Silver Falls (1.8 Miles, 355 feet of elevation gain, 525 calories burned). The trail being at just 2400 feet in altitude sure make a big difference in how we felt hiking. There’s oxygen!! This trail, similar to the trail to the Grove of the Patriarchs as winds through a younger growth forest (probably due to old forests fires or maybe eruptions of the mountain) along the Ohanapecosh River to where the river enters a narrow canyon and eventually pours out at Silver Falls. The falls are pretty. What caught David’s attention were the tree trucks embedded high up in the canyon walls where they had been wedged by flash floods. It’s hard in imaging water that high flowing through this narrow canyon. We continued down the trail until the bridge that crossed over the river giving great views of the falls. Back at the parking lot, we sat in the Behemoth and ate our sandwiches and chips for lunch before heading back to the Wanderer.