Postcard Voyager: The Twilight Edition

So, it's no secret that I'm a big Twilight fan - love the books, love the movies. I've read them and watched them over and over again, and I have a hard time explaining why. I mostly take comfort in the fact that about a billion other women (and a few men) feel exactly like I do.

So imagine my joy and surprise when, out of the blue, a very kind Postcrosser contacted me asking for a private swap - I had a card she really liked - and offered me postcards from Forks in return! And not only that, but she goes there regularly and can get them for me anytime I want. *insert hallelujah choir here*

Long story short, she sent me a great envelope full of beautiful postcards from Forks, Washington, the small town on the Olympic peninsulawhere the Twilight series takes place.

Fortunately for my legitimacy as a blogger, this also happens to be the location of a pretty amazing UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Olympic National Park, home to one of the world's few temperate climate rainforests. If you've seen the Twilight movies, you've seen these blindingly green forests on the big screen - they are really something.

The park has three distinct areas - a rugged coastline, glaciated mountains, and temperate rainforest. Quite a variety for such a small area. I'm fascinated by the rainforest - because it's situated on a fairly isolated peninsula (cut off from the continent by mountains), the plant and animal life has evolved in its own unique way, so that many species exist no where else on earth. Additionally, the rainforests are among the northernmost areas of the continent to not be glaciated, so it was a refuge for species escaping the encroaching ice.

As Twilight fans will know, this area is also home to several Native American groups - the Quileute, located on the La Push reservation, and the Hoh people along the Hoh River. It is clearly a treasure, a place unlike any other on the earth.