This particular Sitka spruce is growing on the edge of bluff overlooking the beach. A stream has chosen the same location to reach the beach and is slowly eroding away the soil beneath the tree. The end result is a mature Sitka spruce, green with life yet dangling precariously in mid air from a few strong roots. The space beneath the tree’s exposed roots is large enough to enter and is known as Tree Root Cave. The stream that has created this phenomenon flows out of the cave and down to the ocean.
The Tree of Life is located in Olympic National Park, on the beach near Kalaloch Campground. But no one knows for sure how long that will be true. The same erosion that has created the natural spectacle continues and, surely, some day, the Tree of Life must fall.
Locals and visitors alike check back year after year, expecting the worst but the Tree of Life remains. Clinging non-intuitively to the sides of its crumbling cliff.