This is a pretty typical view along a river, with the bank leading up into the forest.
Looking across a waterfall of the same river. The bears here are the same ones seen in the wildlife pictures.
We've stepped into the forest, and a break in the trees allows us to look back out at the waterfall.
As soon as you step into the forest, all of noise from the outside nearly disappears, and it is like you have stepped back in time to another world.
A rare place where you can see the sky up through the trees.
We made our way through the forest almost entirely on bear trails.
These are rain forests (though temperate, instead of tropical), so there is moss and lichen growing on almost everything.
Moss growing off the trees.
Yet more moss.
If you get 100 inches or more of rain a year, there is going to be mud.
As you climb up the hill farther into the forest, in places it will open up into a bog.
A bog is a place where the moss on the ground has built up so much (layers growing on top of each other), that few trees can grow.
The moss is like a sponge, retaining water and leaving small ponds.
Close-up of a pond in a bog.
With fewer trees blocking out the light, more bushes are able to grow including various berries that the bears eat.
A view of how a bog sits inside of the forest.
Trees tend to start growing on the decaying wood of another tree, since the ground is covered with so much moss. As the dead tree decays away, it leaves the new tree's roots up off the ground.
Dead trees fallen over creeks create great spawning areas for salmon.
This is not a bog, but grass around a lake that is fed by a river.
A look out across the same lake.
Another fallen tree that will feed future generations.
A final picture.
