Rain Forests are a magnet for visitors to the state. The huge moss-draped cedars of the Hoh Rain Forest (near Forks in Olympic National Park) are just one example of ancient forests in Washington. You’ll find other rain forests on the peninsula in wild river valleys — Sol Duc, Bogachiel, Quillayute, Queets, and others. Stands of “near-rain forest” also can be explored on the western fringes of the Cascade Range via foot trails in valleys such as Thunder Creek, in North Cascades National Park, or the Suiattle River Valley in Glacier Peak Wilderness.
Ancient (non-rain) forests elsewhere in the Cascade Mountains harbor marvelous groves of big trees. On the Cascades’ eastern scarp, in places like Ingalls Creek (via Ingalls Creek Trail from U.S. Highway 97), you can hike through lovely stands of mature ponderosa pines with huge orange-red bark platelets. Or try Mount Rainier National Park’s big tree groves near the Ohanapecosh Visitor Center off SR 123 in the southeastern corner of the park.