Tree of Life

On the west coast of Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula above the beach at Kalaloch Campground in Olympic National Park, a large spruce tree clings to life on either side of a gap in the hillside, the ground beneath it having collapsed decades ago. How many decades I can’t say, with just decades being the closest thing to an answer to how long it has been that way that google would provide.

Kalaloch Beach

Though it is far from pretty much anything, if you happen to be in the area getting there is easy. It’s definitely something worth seeing since it’s such a unique and unusual quirk of nature. The campground is right alongside Highway 101, the main road around the Olympic peninsula. The closest town is Forks, which is almost 34 miles north of Kalaloch Campground.

stairway from the day use parking lot to the beach

A pathway from the day use parking lot leads to the beach and the tree is just north of the steep stairway leading from that trail to the beach. It’s quite a short walk along the beach, maybe 50 yards or so.

the tree of life is about at the middle of this photo where there’s a gap in the cliff

The small cliff rising above the driftwood covered beach is topped by trees all along the way, but none of the others hang in the precarious position that the tree of life does.

Tree of Life

Most photos of the tree show the view from the beach, a view that shows the tree barely clinging to both sides of a gap with bare roots dangling across the middle underneath. From this view it appears that the tree is barely clinging in there and likely to fall at any time, which is why it was given the name Tree of Life – hanging onto its life against all odds while erosion continuously takes ever more soil away from its roots. Its shape also somewhat resembles the tree of life from Avatar and some renditions of the original tree of life.

the tree has an extensive root system on both sides

It’s high enough above the ground that people can walk under it. From the underside you can see that it is more secure than it appears from the front with an extensive root system reaching into the ground along both sides of the gap for the entire length of the area where you can walk underneath it, which goes back quite a ways. Probably at least 12 feet.

under the tree of life

Before going there I had read there was a creek underneath it, but it was dry when we were there. Apparently the creek came about as the result of runoff from a culvert put in near Kalaloch Lodge in the 1960’s and is largely responsible for the erosion under the tree.

the tree of life has some massive limbs crossing the gap

From underneath the tree of life you can see how massive some of the limbs that support it over the gap are. The tree is a Sitka Spruce, which is a type of evergreen so its foliage stays green year-round.

view of the tree of life from underneath

From the area in the gap behind and under the tree you get a different and interesting view of it when looking up. The walls of both sides of the gap are covered in its roots, and they dangle into the open space as well.

Piper in a driftwood house

Making structures from the plentiful driftwood on the beach near the tree appeared to be a very popular activity. There was quite a variety of them among the driftwood lining the top of that beach. All of the driftwood is near the short cliff. The rest of the beach area extending out to the ocean was just sand other than the many people on the beach, some dogs, and a few seagulls.

driftwood on Kalaloch Beach near the tree of life

Kalaloch beach is one of the few places where dogs are allowed in Olympic National Park so there were quite a few of them there. Park passes are required to park in the day use lot. It’s best to get one online in advance as the booth in the parking lot is only open a few hours a day. There was a box where people could pay in an envelope, but at the time we were there the empty envelopes and ones with money in them were all in the same box that anyone could open. Normally the envelopes are outside of a locked box in those sorts of places, but the lock was broken and everything was in the box. I don’t know if it is always that way or if it had been recently broken and not fixed yet.

lots of people taking photos of the tree of life

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