Island of Wildness

This morning, I visited the short Sultan River Canyon Trail in the Spada Lake area. It's a fun journey: The forest around the hike-in access road is very clearly second growth, but as you descend down the short hiking trail, you quickly find yourself surrounded by a much older and more diverse forest. Old-growth cedars steal the show, as they tend to do. Indeed, the forest near the end of the trail is so dark, lush, and quintessentially Washington that, when I shared a few phone snapshots, someone requested that I add "Edward the glittering vampire" to one of the images. Tempting, but as I don't really have the time to find or revise my artist's statements, I'm going to have to stick with my usual aesthetic here.

First, my favorite composition from the morning. Fall in the lowland forests of western Washington can be tricky, as deciduous leaves (particularly in the understory, it seems) can turn brown or pale yellow and droop down, without putting on much of a photogenic fall color display. There's a bit of that going on here, but there are enough reds and residual greens to keep things interesting. The bare alder trunks and the distant Sultan River in the top third of the photograph also provide some contrast. F/18.

Second, my favorite old-growth cedar trunk from the trail, with a few yellowing leaves for contrast. This one's not as unique or as much of a show-stopper as the first, but it gets the job done. F/20.