I Can't Put My Finger on It

There is something fascinating to me about the dead trees in these magnificent forests and National Parks.

Perhaps it's because there are so many subalpine Krummholz trees. These trees tend to be shaped by the near constant exposure to bitter cold freezing winds and heavy amounts of snowfall, so the trunks continue to grow in very dense formations near the ground, but what height does occur is twisted and misshapen.

I joked with my wife that my first published photography book may be entitled 'Dead Trees of the West', because I took so many photos of them. I think the other appealing aspect of these trees is they stand as a testament to a gritty life. They grow out of rocks and under them, they endure fierce conditions throughout their lives, and even in death they serve as hosts for the next generation to rise again.

Anyway, I hope that people enjoy the images; and, who knows, maybe there are others like me who share in this appreciation. I encountered this particular scene at first light along the Discovery Point Trail on the southwest rim of Crater Lake.

Wizard Island

Difficult to gage in a photo, Wizard Island is roughly 316 acres of land (or half a square mile), protruding from the surface of Crater Lake.

Named by William Gladstone Steel in 1885, the island is actually a volcanic cinder cone that rises from within the caldera formed by the last major eruption of Mount Mazama nearly 8,000 years ago. A series of smaller eruptions, which took place over several hundred years formed a number of cinder cones, though Wizard Island is the only one that is above the normal level of the lake surface.

The highest point on the island is 6,933 ft above sea level, but a mere 755 feet above the surface of the lake. Boat tours of the lake operate during summer months, allowing visitors to hike the island, but no overnight camping is permitted.

Lightning Rod of the Cascades

The Chinook Native Americans called this extinct volcano Hischokwolas. John Hurlburt, a Polish explorer, named it for Hans Thielsen, a key railroad engineer involved in the construction of the California and Oregon Railroad.

Mount Thielsen is located just north of Crater Lake National Park and is a much older volcano (eruptive activity ceased about 250,000 years ago) than Mt Mazama whose eruption 7,700 years ago formed the caldera in which Crater Lake stands today. Like other mountains of Oregon's High Cascades, glacier erosion is much more significant on this mountain's structure, resulting in steep slopes and a horn-like peak.

The mountain has earned the nickname "Lightning Rod of the Cascades", because it's spire like peak is hit so frequently that rocks on the top 5' - 10' of the summit have melted into fulgurites - patches of dark glass resembling splotches of enamel paint, including a form of silica glass known as lechatelierite.

I found the mountain to be a visually captivating point in the otherwise seemingly uniform Umpqua National Forest.