[OlympicMountainBackpacker]

On page 20 of the book "The Final Forest' by author William Dietrich, he mentions the world's largest Douglas Fir on the Queets and the world's largest Hemlock and Yellow Cedar on the Quinalt, both of which I have heard of before but have never seen for myself. But what caught my eye was a reference made to the world's largest subalpine fir in the Bailey Range. Has anyone seen this tree? I am headed to the Bailey Range again at the end of August this year, would like to locate that tree, if it still exists.

[DIYSteve]

We saw it in 2002. It was marked on one of the Park Service maps, and we were looking for it. Hard to believe a subalpine fir could get that big. I recall that it was a ways east of and above Cream Lake.

[silence]

sweet ... we hope to get up there this year .. we will look for it ... steve do you have more info?

[tmatlack]

Do a thorough King/Sno-Isle library card catalog or google search for the books by Robert Van Pelt. He is the big tree guru for the Pacific Northwest. Tom

[DIYSteve]

silence, after giving this some thought and talking to one of the guys on that trip, I revised my first post. My refined recollection is that the tree was easterly of Cream Lake. Just prior to starting the trip*, one of the guys had a NPS map which depicted a small black dot "World's Largest Subalpine Fir." It was somewhat laughable because the map was a high level tourist map, and the tree is a minimum of two tough days of XC travel from the nearest trail. We got a good laugh out of that, but were happy to have the info. We marked our 7.5' maps with the approxmiate location and were happy to have found it. The classic conical SAF shape was obvious from a distance. It was not easy to get near the tree! I hope it's still there. A tree that big surrounded by smaller trees, of course, is susceptible to blowdown. *FYI, our route started up the Hoh Trail to Glacier Meadows, then ascended the Blue Glacier to Glacier Pass (side trip summit of Middle Oly), then across the Hoh Glacer to Camp Pan, over Blizzard Pass, down the Humes Glacer, across the cirque at the head of the Queets to Dodwell-Rixon Pass, and then the classic BRT north to Cat Peak, then exited High Divide/Seven Lakes Basin. It's a wonderful route. The E side of the Oly massif is wild, remote and seldom visited.

[Dane]

it was still there as of 2009, marked by a rotting wood sign. maybe 200ft from Herb Crisler's cache tree (which is nearly as big).

[Backpacker Joe]

Come on. One of you Olympics Joe-Bobs (of which I will soon become) must have a picture of this tree.

[Joey]

If you go here http://wikimapia.org/1899648/World-s-largest-subalpine-fir-tree then in the upper right corner you see: Coordinates: 47°51'29"N 123°36'24"W I started Gmap4, did Menu ==> Search and pasted in those coords. The center of the following map is at that spot. Zoom in using the control in the upper left corner (so you do not pan the map). Note the length of the shadow. View larger size in new window

[Mike Collins]

Thanks Joey for doing the work to ferret out the location. Now I can say that I have seen it albeit from a computer screen.

[Dane]

For the record, the coordinates Joey obtained are NOT where I saw the big tree with the "world's largest" sign or Crisler's nearby cache tree. I wonder if that's a mistake or if there is another tree of interest down there...it looks like easy travel for anyone that wants to check it out. Ferry Basin is a hell of a place to just wander around and see what you find...

[Dale]

http://www.arthurleej.com/a-alpinefir.html <snip> Olympic National Park consists of mountains and valleys, including famous rain forests. The Hoh is one of the mightiest rivers, and near the headwaters of that river is Cream Lake, nestled in a broad subalpine valley at 4,400' elevation. To reach Cream Lake and the giant fir, one must forsake the well-traveled official trail system, and head high into trackless backcountry. <snip>

[Dale]

"Northwest Trees Anniversary Edition," Stephen F. Arno & Ramona P. Hammerly Page 107 <snip> One remarkable subalpine fir tree has both a wildlife and a human connection. In 1963 my small party was hiking cross-country through a remote high basin in Olympic National Park when we encountered a subalpine fir so outsized that we could hardly believe our eyes. This tree, nearly 7 feet (2.1m) thick and 129 feet (39 m) tall, has reigned ever since as the largest known of the species. But equally surprising, the tree's base looked like an elf's house. A neatly fashioned little door sealed off a cavity in the trunk, evidently for use as a cache site. It turned out that the couple who a decade earlier made the pioneering Walt Disney documentary "The Olympic Elk" stored food or equipment in this tree while they backpacked through the subalpine fir parklands, capturing this enchanting habitat and its animal life on film.

[ChrisSJI]

So is Chrisler's cache tree and the largest tree to distinct trees or the same? It seems the quotes from Dale indicate it is the same tree but Dane said they are different. I'm not one to challenge the knowledge of Dane, he's our local expert and has been there. So what's the right answer?

[Dane]

[DIYSteve]

It's been 9 years, and I was concentrating on route finding. I'll ask my buds what they recall. I also agree with Dane that Joey's coordinates are not where we saw both trees. I recall that they were closer to Cream Lake.