Forest Contrast

It's too bad that you have to pay to use state parks now, or at least pay to park in them, because Saint Edward State Park is very nice. It doesn't boast any old growth or spectacular geological features, but it's pretty accessible, has nice trails, and goes down to Lake Washington. It also has a sweet playground, if you have kids (it kind of looks like a castle!). I visited this park the other day for some forest shots.

Probably the coolest part of the trip was some color contrast I found. One of the trails (the South Canyon Trail if you're intersted) runs along one side of a ravine. Some of the nearby maple leaves were well illuminated and looked bright green, while the plants on the other side of the ravine looked more bluish-green. In this picture, I thought I captured something of what it looked like:

I also took this picture, which frames a maple trunk with cedar branches. The breeze was actually quiet enough for this to work, something I'm not always lucky enough to have:

The forest still looks pretty nice, but it won't for long. The Indian Plum bushes are already yellowing (and not really a good-looking yellowing, in my opinion) and there are a few dead leaves lying here and there. The transition phase to autumn in forests around here isn't that great, because the green leaves look a bit frail and battered. But by autumn, if conditions are right, St. Edward State Park might look nice again when the maple trees all turn yellow; there are a lot of them in the park.