Olympic Rain Forest,
Queets River, Olympic National Park, Washington

I let Don Bain himself tell about this weeks panorama.

On the west coast of North America there is a narrow strip of land on the seaward slope of the coast ranges that is considered to be a temperate rain forest. Many of the largest trees in the world grow here, from the famous redwoods of northern California, to the Douglas fir and Sitka spruce forests of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. This view was taken on the Queets River in Olympic National Park, Washington. Annual rainfall here totals about 140 inches (355 cm).
The rain forest is multi-layered. The ground is covered with oxalis and ginger, between clumps of sword fern. A low canopy of vine maple, thickly hung with club moss, arches over at about twenty feet (6 m). Above this soar bigleaf maples and red alders, up to a hundred feet (30 m) tall. The tallest trees are Sitka spruce and western hemlock. The huge Sitka spruce tree seen here measured about eight feet (2.5m) in diameter - above the basal swelling. The largest spruce in the world, just a few miles away, has been measured as 15 feet (4.5 m) in diameter and 248 feet (75.5 m) tall.