Hiking Olympic National Park
By Erik Molvar

Hall of Mosses Nature Trail

This trail forms a loop of 0.8 mile through the celebrated Hoh 
Rainforest, visiting a stand of ghostly old bigleaf maples draped with 
spike moss. From its beginning on the visitor center loop, the Hall of 
Mosses trail climbs briskly to the top of a spruce-clad terrace. Bear 
left as the trail splits and then makes its way among the trunks of 
enormous conifers. Nearing the midpoint of the loop, the trail enters 
groves of bigleaf maple with long streamers of spike moss hanging from 
their massive branches. When soaked with rain, the weight of the moss 
becomes so great that even a stout branch may break off under the 
strain. Aerial plants like spike moss, known to ecologists as 
epiphytes, are one of the hallmarks of a true rainforest. Another 
epiphyte common to this area is the licorice fern, which grows from 
moss beds on tree trunks and fallen logs. Watch for nurse logs, fallen 
trees that have become seedbeds for shrubs and seedlings, as the trail 
makes its way back to the visitor center.