Another Day in Paradise, Part 3.2

Continued from Part 3.1...

Our next stop took us past Port Renfrew, the gateway to the famous West Coast Trail. We read that the world's biggest Douglas Fir was in the area. Not wanting to pass up the chance to see such a wonder, we decided to take a look. It turned out to be the highlight of the adventure, and the hardest part of the day.

After winding up and down shale riddled roads, tempting us to turn back a few times, we finally arrived at the site. A lush fern-filled trail almost overgrown with second growth rainforest led us to an opening where we finally found the wooden giant. Standing nearly twice as high as any of its fir grandchildren, the tree towered above everything around it. We imagined how much taller and more ancient the forest would have appeared when the original growth still existed.

After admiring the almost 1,000 year-old tree, along with other tree species at almost the same size, we headed back along the winding road towards home. The island favored us with warm views of distant mountains cradling the sun as it slowly dipped behind them.