Life of a driftwood

It was a lonely piece of driftwood that I spotted on the smooth sandy shores of Shi Shi beach a few weeks ago. It's life probably began as a tree deep in the temperate rainforests along the wet coastline of the Pacific Northwest.

The deluge of water from a strong summer storm would have probably yanked away the tree, or probably it's branch, and carried it down its rocky cascades leaving it somewhere in the Pacific. It would have floated for months on the turbulent foamy waters, with time slowly hewing away all the leaves and rough branches, leaving behind a gnarly yet smooth piece of driftwood. It would have taken another storm, or few, for it to finally get deposited on this beach in the high tide, never to be disturbed from its final grave. That is, until humans moved it around for photographic pleasure to this very location.

Olympic National Park

WA USA