What Is The Olympic Sol Duc Rainforest And Where Is It?
The Sol Duc Rainforest is one of a number of named rainforests in the boundaries of Olympic National Park. Olympic National Park covers a vast territory that includes rugged Pacific Coast beaches, rainforests, lakes, glaciers and towering mountain peaks. It is located on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington Sate. The towns of Port Angeles, Washington and Forks Washington are the two towns The most commonly serve as places to stay at Olympic National Park.
If you are flying into Washington to go to Olympic National Park and want the closest airport to the boundary of the park then you’ll want to fly into the Seattle Airport. If you wan to loop in some of Oregon on your trip then you may want to fly into the Portland Airport.
The Sol Duc Rainforest is located about halfway between Port Angeles and Forks, Washington. It is accessible via paved roads. There is a hot springs resort in Sol Duc along with an RV Campground. Within Sol Duc there are numerous hiking trails, waterfalls, and streams that gush down through the rainforest, particularly after hard rainstorms. It’s a beautiful place to visit any time of year. It’s much less crowded in the winter and of course can get extremely crowded during the summer.
What Is It Like To Travel To The Sol Duc Rainforest At Olympic National Park?
If you don’t live within easy driving distance of the park then chances are you’ll need to fly into Portland or Seattle as noted above. You’ll need to get a rental car. Most any car will do unless it look like you’ll have to drive through winter weather along the way.
You’ll probably want to stay in Port Angeles if you would like to explore the northern parts of the park. That would include areas like Hurricane Ridge, Lake Crescent and the Sol Duc Rainforest as well as some of the northern beaches. Port Angeles is a pretty big town with a variety of lodging, restaurants and shops. Most anything you might nerd can be found in Port Angeles. If you want to spend more of your time at Sol Duc and parts south then you may wan to stay in the town of Forks and stock up on any supplies as you pass through Port Angeles. There are plenty of campgrounds in the park as well.
Driving around Olympic National Park is pretty smooth and easy so long as there are no major rainstorms to cause a lot of flooding or wash out any roads. It doesn’t happen often but it does happen at times.
What Does It Take To Get A Wall Art Quality Photo In The Sol Duc Rainforest?
If you want to get a wall art quality in the Sol Duc Rainforest, the best time to go visit in my opinion it right after a hard overnight rain. After hard rain, the streams will be swollen, the waterfalls will be gushing and if the sun come up in the morning and warms things up, the forest will be full of fog or mist. This does often require a cool or cold night and a warmer sunny morning.
Regardless of whether you get those conditions or not, you’ll need to hike around and look for interesting compositions. You’ll have streams, ephemeral streams, waterfalls, foot bridges, hiking trails, moss covered trees, ferns and much more to incorporate into your photos.
If you don’t get an overnight rainstorm and a warmer sunny morning the cloudy days can be great time to shoot as well. In the rainforest you’ll probably need a tripod if you wan to get any depth of field on a cloudy day. The clouds and the forest canopy can cut way down on the light at ground level. If you get a bright sunny day, you might still get some photos you are happy with but will likely have some really bright spots and really dark spots depending on how the light filters down through the trees.
What Is The Best Gear For Photographing The Olympic National Park Sol Duc Rainforest?
Since you will likely encounter a lot of different lighting conditions, a camera that can shoot in bright and low light and handle slow shutter speeds it ideal That would likely be DSLR or a mirrorless that can take long exposures. If you are taking long exposures you’d want a tripod. A circular polarizer could come in handy for taking the shine or glare off of wet leaves. A neutral density filter may come in handy if you are shooting waterfalls in sunlight to darken the scene and facilitate the smooth silky texture on running water.
What Is The Story Behind Misty Morning Sol Duc Rainforest Wall Art Photo?
This photo was taken in February during the very slow season at Olympic National Park. There was a hard rainstorm the previous night and the forecast for this morning was mostly sunny. I got out on the trails around 9:30am and looked for cool sights other than Sol Duc Falls. This bridge lies along the trail to Sol Duc Falls.
Early in the morning much of the Sol Duc Rainforest was fogged in. As the skies cleared and the sun shone down through the forest, the dissipating fog caught the sun beams shining down though the forest. The stream under this footbridge was quite swollen. The stream, the sunbeams through the fog and the footbridge all combined for a pretty awesome scene in the Sol Duc Rainforest. The lack of people in the park in February made it MUCH easier to get clean shots without people hiking all over the place.
What Formats Is This Sol Duc Rainforest Wall Art Print Available?
This Sol Duc Rainforest wall art print comes in sizes up to 40×60 inches and can be printed on paper, metal, canvas, acrylic, and wood. For an all purpose print that will look great under most any lighting conditions a matte paper or canvas print would be best. If the targeted area for the print will have diffused light then prints with shinier more reflective surfaces like metal, acrylic, or glossy metallic or glossy canvas prints.
For something more along the lines of home decor, shower curtains and Sherpa fleece blankets are generally cheaper than prints. They are still large and potentially more useful that prints.
If you’re more interested in something you wear or carry with you, there is a variety of apparel available. Canvas tote bags and phone cases make excellent accessories and the canvas totes are excellent for replacing plastic grocery shopping bags.
500 and 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles make great gifts as well. They come in nice decorative boxes and present that Sol Duc rainforest fan with a great challenge for that rainy day.
Leave a Reply