Javin Elliff Photography

July 9, 2025

Familiar Forest

This is one of my favorite places to return to every few years. I know I can find solitude in this forest, which is a patchwork of second growth and old growth. The second growth is old enough to walk through in most places, but still in the stem exclusion stage where the uniform canopy blocks most light from reaching the forest floor. Transitioning from the dark younger forest into the ancient old growth makes one appreciate the untouched nature even more. Towering trees that are older than the United States are common here.

A sunny day in an old growth temperate rainforest. Most of these trees are western hemlock, but the bigger one on the right is a western redcedar.
An old growth forest showing primarily western hemlock as well as a few Pacific silver fir trees.
A giant old growth western redcedar with a few burls on its trunk.
A large old growth western hemlock tree that was used as a tailhold several decades ago when the adjacent forest was logged. The loggers cut these notches into the tree so that a cable could be wrapped around it and used as an anchor when yarding other felled trees to the road. This tree is dead, but has remained standing.

The stream is clear and cold. On this trip I revisited a waterfall that I found over a decade ago (it is not marked on any map). In my wanderings I discovered another waterfall.

I visited a small emerald-hued lake which was a new destination for me, and the mosquitos were so dense that I stayed less than an hour.

A long exposure of a waterfall in a temperate rainforest.
A long exposure of a waterfall in a temperate rainforest.
A waterfall surrounded by lush green ferns, moss and trees.
A small lake surrounded by forest.
A long exposure of a stream in a temperate rainforest.
A long exposure of a stream in a temperate rainforest.
A long exposure of a small stream on a sunny day.