Posts Tagged Larches
July 8, 2011 – Larches at Heather Pass
Posted by Dave in Fall Color, Picture of the Day, Washington State on July 8, 2011
Larches at Heather Pass
Friday, July 8, 2011
Well, three posts in one week. Not my worst ever performance, so I’ll take it. This is a view from just below Heather Pass in North Cascades National Park. And, those are larches. I’ve talked about them a bunch of times, but for review: they are pine trees that change color in the fall. They are awesome. I have run out of interesting things to say.
I’m not going to post anything Monday, I’m warning you ahead of time, so plan accordingly.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens. 1/400s, f/5.6, ISO 400. Focal length: 11mm.
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January 24, 2011 – Larches near Colchuck Lake
Posted by Dave in Fall Color, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Washington State on January 24, 2011
Larches above Colchuck Lake
Monday, January 24, 2011
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Hello, welcome back from the weekend! I was hoping that I’d be able to make it out this weekend to take some new pics, because it’s been awhile now since I’ve been able to get anything worthy of tossing up in this blog. But, no, the weather didn’t really work out, yet again. Sigh. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve still got plenty queued up in the backlog to last awhile. But still, it would be nice to get some new ones. I mean, the whole point of a hobby is that it it’s an activity that you enjoy. So I miss it, and that’s sad. Oh well, hopefully someday soon.
In the meantime, here’s a shot from last fall. This was taken very late in the afternoon from the shores of Lake Colchuck, which is outside Leavenworth, Washington. Those larches looked nice, with the last few rays of sunshine illuminating them on that rugged ridge way up there. It’s kind of a recurring theme about last fall, but I wasn’t expecting to see the larches changing color yet, I thought it was still 2 or 3 weeks early for that. On this hike in particular, I didn’t get to get up close and personal with any of them (although on the hike I did the next weekend, I did), so I had to settle for seeing them up on the surrounding mountains. But still, it was a nice sight.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Canon 55-250mm IS lens. 1/500s, f/9.0, ISO 400. Focal length: 179mm.
Popularity: 18%
October 29, 2010 – Larches at Heather Pass
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Fall Color, Picture of the Day, Washington State on October 29, 2010
Larches at Heather Pass
Friday, October 29, 2010
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Speaking of larches… These guys were just below Heather Pass in North Cascades National Park. I’m mentioning that solely so that Google will notice. Hi, Google!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. 1/200s, f/6.3, ISO 200. Focal length: 45mm.
Popularity: 16%
October 22, 2010 – Maple Pass, North Cascades National Park
Posted by Dave in Fall Color, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Washington State on October 22, 2010
Maple Pass, North Cascades National Park
Friday, October 22, 2010
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Wow, it’s Friday already?? That week went quick. To celebrate, here’s a shot that I took while hiking a couple weeks ago. I realized a couple days ago that, as happy as I was with the pictures that I got from this hike, I’ve so far only posted one here on the blog. So, here’s number two. Yay! In the interest of full disclosure, this one wasn’t my favorite shot that I got from the day, not even from that general part of the hike. But, this is the one that got the most comments of “ooo, I like that one.” Personally, I think it’s messy, since I didn’t do a great job of not having random little branches poking into the frame. Now that I’ve pointed them out, you’re probably all focusing in on them, which is probably getting in the way of you enjoying what you previously probably thought was a nice little picture. Ah well.
This was taken from very near Maple Pass, which is in North Cascades National Park, accessed via the trail that has the somewhat obvious name of “Maple Pass trail”. I don’t know what the name of that mountain is, but my best guess (based on looking at the map) is Black Peak. As you can probably tell, the fall colors that day were stupendous. Although, it’s not the same kind of color that you see elsewhere (like in New England, where I was last weekend..) At least in this part of the state, in the high country – it’s all pine trees. But, there’s a lot of little bushes and such that change colors pretty dramatically, and once you get really high, you start to see more and more of these larches, which are pine trees that actually change color and drop their needles. I knew there would be some along this trail, but I thought we were a couple weeks to early to see them this colorful. Apparently we nailed it right at the peak. Go us!
Have a great weekend, everyone! Try to get outside to see some color if you can. Out here, I’ll be hunkered down due to weather. But I’d bet you’ve got some good color going on where you are, I want to see pictures!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. 1/200s, f/7.1, ISO 200. Focal length: 29mm.
Popularity: 16%
October 4, 2010 – Larches near Maple Pass
Posted by Dave in Fall Color, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Washington State on October 4, 2010
Larches near Maple Pass
Monday, October 4, 2010
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Hey everyone. I hope your weekend was as amazingly awesome as mine. But I doubt it was. Sorry.
I took advantage of our second consecutive nice-weather-Saturday to head up to North Cascades National Park. I picked out the Maple Pass Loop trail, and omg omg omg it was fantastic. The trail guide suggested that there’d be some good views, but WOW. Definitely in the running for the most incredible trail I’ve ever hiked. Stupendous views nearly the entire length of the trail. And it wasn’t even that much of a butt kicker. (7.2 miles, 2000 vertical feet – enough to make you feel like you got some exercise, but it definitely won’t kill you.) And the color. Oh my god the color. I figured some of the bushes and such would be turning nicely, but I had no idea that it would be to that degree. And the larches. Holy effing crap, the larches. Based on past experience, I figured the larches were still a couple weeks away. But no, they were right at the peak. So that was a totally unanticipated bonus, as if the rest of the trail wasn’t amazing enough already. If you were hoping to get out to see some larches this year, DO IT NOW! They may not last too much longer. If you can take off during the week, I absolutely encourage you to do so, you’re running out of time this year to see color like this!
I suppose I should mention: larches? Yeah, they’re these pine trees, you see. But unlike just about every other kind of pine tree, they actually turn in the fall and drop their needles. You’re looking at larches in today’s picture. They turn sort of an aspen-like gold, and when the sunlight hits them just right, it’s downright glorious. Especially when you’re wandering around in a high-alpine wonderland in a sea of golden glow. Oh man, it’s a sight to see. And this is a great trail to see it. You start out at around 4900 feet, and you top out just under 7000. It’s a relatively easy way to get up to the high country, my kind of hike.
You’ll definitely be seeing more from this hike over the coming weeks/months. I’m just getting started going through the pics, although I’ve still got to go through most of the pics from my other hikes this summer too, so, umm, it may be awhile. But it’ll be worth the wait!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. 1/200s, f/7.1, ISO 200. Focal length: 31mm.
Popularity: 10%
April 30, 2010 – Larches at Ingalls Pass
Posted by Dave in Fall Color, Picture of the Day, Washington State, Winter/Snow on April 30, 2010
Larches at Ingalls Pass
Friday, April 30, 2010
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According to the old saying, it should be raining today. And tomorrow? Flowers. Sweet, looking forward to that, for sure. Although glancing at the forecast leads to the question of what exactly the May showers bring. And I’ll tell you: the one year anniversary of me starting this blog, that’s what. Whooooo yeah.
Today’s picture was taken on the Ingalls Pass trail, which is accessible via a 20 or 30 mile long dead-end road outside of Cle Elum, Washington. Those trees are larches. They’re actually coniferous (pine) trees, but they’re fairly unique in that they actually change colors and drop their needles in the fall. They’re really pretty, but (at least in western Washington) pretty hard to get to. I guess there are fairly large swaths of them in some of the eastern Washington forests, and western Montana, and the Idaho panhandle, although my understanding is that those are a somewhat different species than these here that you’re looking at. (But that doesn’t change the fact that they, also, change colors and drop their needles.) Out here, they are only found at higher elevations at particular locations, which means you’ve gotta hike to find them. We got pretty lucky the year I took this: we had gotten a little bit of snow a couple days before, then a beautiful sunny day that fell right on a weekend right when the larches were peaking. Perfect timing really. I told Julie at the time that we needed to make a larch hike an annual tradition, but that didn’t end up happening yet. (Well, to be fair, the next year she was on the verge of giving birth to our kid, and the year after that we … didn’t really have a good excuse.) Maybe this year, check back in the fall, I’ll let you know.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300mm lens. 1/200s, f/9.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 39mm.
Popularity: 13%