Further Reading lants and animals live in communities called life zones, the regions for which they are best adapted. Some plants and animals may thrive in the dark, wet conditions of the rain forest, while others have adapted to the bright sunshine and dry climate of a subalpine meadow. The coastal and temperate rain forest zones are found only in Olympic . The combination of a moderate climate, moisture-laden clouds moving east from the ocean, summer fog, and a coastal mountain range produces the temperate rain forest zone. Visiting the rain forest, you enter a different world, where time, space, and distance lose their meaning.
Mosses cloak tree trunks and drape from the limbs like green shrouds.
The sky disappears, closed out by towering trees. Beneath these ancient giants, some of them 1,000 years old, new seedlings reach skyward, seeking the elusive light. In this dense, hushed, primeval world, nature dominates, and humans are only visitors. You may catch a glimpse of black-tailed deer and Roosevelt elk feeding in the dense forest. Protection of the elk was a primary reason for the creation of Olympic National Park.