We rumbled through the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest at Money Creek Campground. This is an old growth forest filled with mystery.
I tried to climb up. Luckily, I'm light-weight and can hang on to the ferns and moss growing on this tree. The forest here is filled with Pacific silver fir, western red cedar, Alaskan yellow cedar, I think. But perhaps you can figure it out in this brochure. These trees are in the Crest of the Cascades on the west side where lots of rain and few fires allow the vegetation to flourish, as you will see in these pictures.
Looking up from the same spot, I feel even smaller than usual!
See?
I try another one --- can you believe how tall these grow?
It is so wet, sometimes another tree grows on the side of one already growing!
We're still up in the mountains, so snow is all around.
It's spring though! New growth!
Yes, this is growing right on the tree!
See?
Two trees grow from the stump of another.
It's magical.
Trees fall, and more grow right on top.
Can you count the rings? These are very old trees. Hundreds of years old.
Money Creek bubbles nearby.
Look at this! One tree fell, and another grew right on top of it! This is called a nursery log.
Washington State is so wet on the west side, that it has several temperate rainforests.
Look up “rainshadow effect” and you will discover why Western Washington is WET and Eastern Washington is DRY.
Image from Public Domain
After reading about the rainshadow effect, can you uses the diagram above to explain it to me?
In Washington State, you can see the ocean, a temperate rainforest, a desert, and shrub-steppe sagebrush and grasslands as you drive across!
No comments:
Post a Comment