Forest Photography

Forests can be difficult to photograph with harsh light streaming through the trees creating harsh shadows against brilliant highlights. Chaos reigns over simplicity where branches intersect, and textures vie for attention. They are busy places where the eye can find little rest. If the eye has difficulty finding rest, your camera lens as an extension of your eye will not find it. Finding a way to simplify your forest scenes becomes the task in forest photography.

Our brains like simplicity. When we look at an image, our brains like to be able to discern easily the subject and story the photographer finds important. Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you walk through a park woodland to help you find and compose an image filled with story without the clutter.

Who is your story about? In forest photography, it isn’t simply about finding a nice composition, it’s about finding the main character of your image. It could be a gnarly tree, or a fern resting in the roots of a cedar, or flowers along the path, or even how the sun lights the moss clinging to a branch. Find the character you want to feature in your image then look for compositional elements to highlight the character.

How’s the light? Look around you. Is the sun shining brightly casting dark shadows through the forest? Is it an overcast day where shadows and highlights are softer? Is it a dull day with barely any light seeping through the foliage? Each of these lighting situations bring with it their own challenges and rewards. Harsh shadows give your images a graphic quality that you can further accentuate by converting your image into black and white. Turn your back to the sun to find a composition that is completely lit from the front yet the background falls into shadow. These images are great to emphasize shapes and textures of branches and leaves. Even better, look for plants that are backlit and the background falls into shadow as they make beautiful and dramatic images. Bright overcast days make photographing forests easier as everything in the woodland density is more evenly lit. You still have shadows and highlights but not as dramatic. This lighting lends itself well to images of the personality of the forest; wider landscapes filled with trees and the ferns and bushes that fill the understory. The darkest days lend themselves well to small little vignettes of the shapes and textures of life. Find the little bright areas of leaves and flowers to focus on. Don’t stay home in the rain either. Throw on your macro lens or extension tubes to capture rain drops on leaves. Or capture the ethereal nature of rain in the forest as the air around you seems to moisten and soften. If you are lucky enough to have a foggy day in the forest, you will find other worldly images and subjects happily separated from the busy-ness of the background.

Will a different lens help? Different focal lengths of your lenses will give you flexibility in your compositions. As discussed earlier, landscape photographers rely on the holy trinity of zoom lenses – the ultra-wide angle, the mid-range, and the tele-photo. With these lenses you can capture all the moods of the forest. With the ultra-wide angle, you can capture environmental details and play with the curvature of the lens distortion. Try getting in close to a flower and have the forest in the background. With your mid-range lens you can capture all the scenes and details close to the trail. Your tele-photo zoom can isolate features and details farther away. Change out your lens to see if that helps you create the image you want.

What happens to the image if you open or close the aperture? The aperture, while regulating how much light reaches the sensor, will also determine how sharp the elements in front or behind your subject are. The aperture determines how thick your plane of focus us. The wider the aperture, the narrower your plane of focus and more elements behind and in front of the subject will be out of focus. The narrower the aperture, the thicker your plane of focus and more elements around your subject will be in focus. Try making several images each with a different aperture to see how that changes the mood of your image.

Is the shutter speed helping you capture or stop motion? In forest photography you might think that you’d want to show trees as steadfast and solid. Trees don’t move – they stay in one place from sapling to collapse. And that may just be the story you want to tell. But is it the only story? Watch trees and you will see them sway in the breeze, bobbing their heads to an unheard beat. So, play with the dichotomy of solid trees that shiver with the slightest caress of a breeze by slowing down your shutter speed and let tittering trees become the focus. Another fun exercise with slower shutter speeds is to use intentional camera movement to create abstract images of the forest.

Did you remember to bring your tripod and polarizing filter? Two indispensable accessories not to leave behind are your tripod and polarizing filter. I darker forests, when your shutter speed is slow, you will want your tripod to reduce camera shake. Avoid the disappointment of having spent the day in the forest photographing verdant beauty to get home to see unintentionally blurry photos. Use a tripod. The other accessory, the polarizing filter, comes in very handy in the forest to help reduce the glare of reflected light off leaves. Using a polarizer can help bring richer, more saturated color to your image by reducing the reflective glare.

Did you perform border patrol? Your final act before releasing the shutter is to perform border patrol. This is one of those tasks to undertake in all landscape photography. Border patrol is to check the edges of your image to make sure there are no distracting elements coming into the frame. This was once far more important in film photography since you can easily clone out distractions in your editing software. But it is a good habit to get into. Sometimes a gentle shift of camera position can take out the distraction without disturbing your composition eliminating the need to fix it in post. Also, fixing those distraction in forest photography can be cumbersome with different branches and leaves that may not clone out as well.

With practice, forest photography turns into joy and meditation. Spend time exploring the forest.

10 Tips for Forest Photography

After publishing a post about what makes forests so magical to photograph, I thought I'd give you 10 tips on how to photograph in a forest.

1. Go On Overcast Days

You wake up and notice a bright sunny day beginning to warm the earth. Grab your camera and head to the beach. But if you get a day with a little to a lot of cloud cover, take your camera to the forest. As sunlight streams through the trees, dark shadows cast next to bright highlights. This can be very difficult to capture in one exposure. It can be done, but generally with quite a bit of post processing involved. And if you've clipped your highlights and/or darks on your histogram you might be out of luck pulling details out of those areas. Diffused light is so much better at capturing the colors and textures of the trees and under-story of the forest. Without the harsh highlights and shadows, the wonderful details of the forest come to life. Clouds are nature's diffusers and make for less headaches in light metering and post processing. Added tip: Foggy days add a sense of mystery.

2. Bring Your Tripod

Since you're going out on cloudy days, you will most likely be using a slower shutter speed on your camera. Do yourself a favor and bring a tripod. I can't tell you how many times I've been disappointed when I got home because I thought "Ah, it's bright enough. I don't need a tripod." No, I needed a tripod. The light may seem bright enough, but often it's not - not in the trees at least. Even with higher quality sensors that can be boosted to capturing good images at high ISO's, you might find you want to keep your ISO lower to reduce noise. And if you throw a polarizing filter on your lens (tip #4), your shutter speed will become even slower with the added density of the filter. There have been times that I've found the tripod useful as a trekking pole too.

3. Bring A Variety Of Lenses

When hiking, I generally head out with 2 lenses to help cut down on extra weight in my pack - an 18mm-75mm zoom and a 75mm-300mm zoom. I've found that this lens combination helps me capture pretty much everything. You will also want to pack along a macro lens to capture those close-up details. I personally use a diopter filter for macro - again a decision to help cut down on pack weight plus I do not mind that there is focus fall-off with the diopter because of my style of photography. You might decide differently. But the point here is to bring lenses and play with them. A slow walk in the forest encourages you to experiment and find out what you, your camera and your lenses can do. Having a wide angle lens gives you sweeping forest views with ferns or flowers in the foreground. A longer lens lets you focus on the far-away leaf glittering in the light against the dark.

4. Bring Your Polarizer

Oh my gosh, I can not extol the virtues of having a polarizing filter for forest photography enough. A polarizer helps to cut the glare and reflections on such things as windows, water, and leaves. Even on cloudy days, you can end up with light reflections or glare on the leaves of your subject. Adding a circular polarizer and rotating it will cut down the glare. Test it, see what happens - with the live-view viewfinders, you will see the difference it makes. They cut the glare and all of a sudden your greens are greener, reds are redder and everything around you looks rich and alive. The trees begin to talk and the ferns start showing off. You can feel yourself fall into the wondrous land just like Alice.

5. Watch Where You're Looking (up, down, behind)

As we walk through the world, we tend to look down to watch where we step.  While this is very important in the forest - we don't want to trip over roots and rocks - we also want to make sure we're not missing the beauty surrounding us. Look up:  see how the trees come together in the sky. Look for branches stretching across the trees. Is the sun peaking through? Can you get a sun star or better yet, sunbeams? So much of the forest is above our eyes, so make sure you search the life above. Look down, but for more than where to put your next step. Does the trail offer a beautiful curve through the tree? Are there mushrooms, flowers, or details along the edge of the trail that are talking to you? Look over your shoulder. Is the light hitting that hanging moss differently once you get around to the other side? Or is the grouping of trees offering a different texture? What does the forest look like if you stand on that rock over there? What about if you lay down in the trail? Change your perspective and the forest will tell you another story.

6. Seasons Change

One of my favorite aspects of telling the forest story, is that it doesn't matter what time of the year you go. In fact the more often you go, the better the story. Winter displays of bare limbs open the under-story to wider views. Mists cling to evergreen bows like sparkling jeweled drops or snow fall gently through the trees. Spring wakens with bright green growth of young leaves on bushes and trees - the air seems to glow with life. Ferns unfurl their fronds as flowers open upward to the sky. When summer arrives, head to cooler forests for wonderful textures in the trees. While in tip #1 the idea is to go with cloudy day, why not head out with the sun spotting the forest floor and play with the details of light and dark. My favorite season is autumn, when the leaves begin to tarnish with season's end. While in spring you walk through air glowing green, in autumn the air vibrates with gold.

7. Go Slow and Stop Often

My friends know that when I invite them on a forest walk and pull out my tripod at the trailhead, we're going slow. Sometimes it's as slow as a mile an hour. Luckily they know this and bring plenty of layers and snacks. But it is also a time for them to slow down and really look at the forest details. I often see them hunched over some lichen or wildflower, their cameras out capturing a texture or splash of color. Don't be afraid to stop if something catches your eye - even if you're not sure what it was. Stop, go back, study, move, adjust until you see what initially caught your attention. If you're not seeing it, move on. You're taking a walk in the woods; you're not on a death march. Take your time, communicate with the forest, listen to what it's telling you, then photograph that message.

8. Play With Your Camera Settings

Just like using different lenses to create different effects or bring attention to different aspects of the forest, playing with your camera settings can help to fully tell your story of the forest. First, play with your aperture. A wide open aperture will highlight an element like a wildflower while throwing the rest of the scene into a soft frame. Close down the aperture to show the depth of detail and texture of the forest. Next try adjusting your shutter speed. A fast shutter speed will quickly capture a fleeting moment in time, like a deer peaking through the brush or a flowing bouncing in the wind. A slower shutter speed adds the effect of movement - the bouncing flower becomes a study in motion. Or try panning to highlight the splashes of color. Get to know your camera and the creative possibilities it will help you discover.

9. Add Humanity

I like hiking with my friends, don't you? Why not add human perspective into your images? People are not an other in the wilderness but are grown from it. Our experiences in the woods help form who we are and our relationship with the natural world. Adding a human element helps to tell the story of this relationship. It shows the grandeur of the forest and the awe we feel as we walk in the presence of nature.

10. Have Fun

Finally, Have Fun! If you walk into a forest with an happy attitude, the forest will respond in kind. It will begin to show you its secrets. It will show you its soul. You can't help but be happy trying to capture the story of the forest. Play with your lenses, your settings, your viewpoint. Take you time to get to know the place your in and you can't help but leave with a smile on your face. Photographing in a forest is a time to play and laugh. Look at the forest as a child would, with eyes of wonder and exploration. I guarantee that if you have fun, you're images will show that fun and wonder.

Forest Patina

The forest begins to darken. The sun is still high in the sky and a glance at my watch lets me know it's close to noon. Clouds had been drifting across the sky all morning, but this wasn't a cloud dimming the light through the trees - this was the closeness of the trees.

This is the kind of forest where I slow down, a forest out of a Grimm's brothers fairy tale where children are eaten and lost wanderers wake in a land of elves and not the Orlando Bloom kind. I both love and fear the closeness of the forest. I love it for the silence and stillness that lets me breathe deeply the earthy air while trying to calm my racing heart. It's the closed character of the forest I fear. I'm a bit claustrophobic so not being able to see far makes my heart quicken. I also have a vivid imagination so every drip from mist laden tree, every rustling of a critter I have to stop and listen and remind myself that all is well. That a wicked witch isn't coming to cook me in a stew like my sister would often tell me as children.

My pace slows as I push aside my apprehension to appreciate the beauty around me. In a forest this dense little light gets through the canopy above so the under story is sparse. It's winter now and I wonder if any of the small woodland flowers are able to brighten the side of the trail. Little white foam flowers, maybe some twin flower. A speckling of white against the dark soil and duff.

Dark and moist coastal air is perfect habitat for lichens and moss which I'm finding plenty of during my hike through Hoypus Point. Off in the narrow distance I see the greyish green of what I've heard refer to a Forest Patina (I googled it and google has no idea what I'm talking about). Just look at the image above, the lichens on the tree trunks give an appearance of copper as it ages. The same complexion as the Statue of Liberty.

Our Pacific Northwest forests are perfect for lichens and mosses and even algae to grow on the trunks of trees. And while the light hasn't changed in this section of the forest, it seems brighter now. Less foreboding, more welcoming. I find the patina to have an almost ghostly effect. I pause to wonder why these trees? Why this spot? Had I just not noticed the patina until now?

I softly lay a hand against the green bark and smile before heading back into the dark forest.

The Forest for the Trees

The first of many posts about photographing forests. Check out my 10 tips on photographing forests.

Let me introduce you to my enthusiasm of photographing forest scenes and why I get excited about photographing forests.

I grew up on the wet side of the Cascade Mountains in the Pacific Northwest, and I didn't know how good I had it. I'm a bit claustrophobic and the thick forests around the Puget Sound, at times, made me tense and anxious. I would often escape to the east side of the mountains to "let my eyes breathe". I felt free, and still to this day feel a sense of freedom when I hit the road to drive over Snoqualmie Pass into the arid open lands of eastern Washington. The colors of the earth filled of hazy greens and browns fascinated me - and I could see to the horizon. The west side of the mountains were just so  . . . green and if I could see to anything in the distance, it was usually the next tree. I felt locked in by those trees, trapped.

It was no wonder that I moved to the front range of the Rockies after college. Big open skies, prairies that went on forever, mountains at my back. I was in love with the sights, the tones, the smells. Even after moving home Montana, Wyoming and Colorado still pull at my heart. But what I didn't have there, what I couldn't have was the cool embrace of the Puget Sound forests. I missed them more than I thought possible. I came home on a wet autumn day - the gold and brown leaves of Big Leaf Maples drifting to the ground to rest in puddles in the roadway. Every frayed nerve in my body dissipated. I was home.

Winter that year was grey, the kind of grey that seeps into every color in the spectrum. But as spring arrived, I began to realize how many tones of green I had missed in my early years. As leaves unfurled in the forest the greens were soft and fresh. They appeared to vibrate to the sunlight as it streamed through the canopy to touch the different shades and textures of green. Oh, how my eyes opened. I drank in every new green I could see and held it close its beauty. To this day spring is one of my favorite times to photograph the forest. I love to tell its story of life and rejuvenation.

As summer takes hold, the forest is a cool place to relax from the hectic days of activity. I slow down when I enter the forest. The trees shade my trail and I look for the textures in the moss and leaves. Flowers and berries dot the trail side with splashes of color - contrasting beautifully against the greens of Salal and Oregon Grape.

But all too soon it seems, splashes of another season begin to show in the bright places along the edges of the forest. Vine Maple is the first to turn from green. Oranges and reds speckle the landscape - demonstrating to the rest of the forest how beautiful it can become. Autumn would be my other favorite season in the trees as the vibrant colors of berry bushes and deciduous trees compliment the dark greens of our conifer.

Growing up, I used to describe winter as grey. Everything was grey, even yellow. Grey, boring, and depressing. I really can't say that anymore. I head to the forest for contrasts during the winter months. Contrast of white snow against dark trees. The soft texture of snow against the rough texture of bark. The movement of falling snow against the stationary forest.

Each forest season has its story and I am eager to help tell it.

The Scent of Green

Green has a scent.

Green smells like spring in a Pacific Northwest forest.

As the ferns unfurl their fronds reaching out for new life, you can smell it.

As the Salmonberry and Thimbleberry leaf out and blossom preparing for their juicy summer fruits, you can smell it.

As the undergrowth replenishes through warmer air and moist days putting forth sparkling gems of wildflowers, you can smell.

As the moss drips with rain water from the sturdy boughs of the trees surrounding you, you can smell it.

As the Big Leaf Maples and the tentacles Vine Maples spread their palmated leaves to collect the sun and rejuvenate their roots, you can smell it.

As streams rattle and crash over rocks and through banks of glorious and vibrant greens, you can smell it.

As you walk through a Pacific Northwest forest in the spring, you can smell it.

You can smell green.

Have you smelled it?

Big Doug

They call you Big Doug an I wonder if you like the name or are oblivious to the hikers who come to gape at your size as I have. Is it rude to stare at a tree?

I sit at your base, on roots of a tree seen in any other context could be considered grand yet nest to you it seems small and insignificant. Your stature reaches toward the sky with branches only near your crown - they appear to be arms outstretched to welcome the sun.

The stories you tell are in the cracks of your bark. Burn marks from a long forgotten wildfire scar your trunk, the bark seemingly more fragile than the rest. small shrubs have started to sprout from the debris in your crevassed bark.

You're an old being, an Ent taking the time to tell your stories. To whisper you wisdom on the breeze. Living a life of quiet contemplation among your peers conversing through the creaks of your stems, the sway of your limbs and the buzz of life around you.

What shall I call you you other than venerable?

Walking in Enchantment

With names like the Hobbit Trail and Wind in the Woods Trail where you can find bird's nest fungus and witches butter fungus, Federation Forest State Park can be an enchanting place to visit. And, if like me, you had spent the previous day standing in snow for nearly 10 hours, and I do mean standing, waiting for navigation students to find their way through the woods then Federation Forest is also a perfect place to decompress.

Federation Forest consists of 619 acres stretching along Highway 410 and the White River. I've often zipped past the park as I'm heading to & from Mt Rainier and always think "I need to stop there." But never seem to.

Until now.

One of my resolutions this year was to visit Washington State Parks - wonderful little gems dotting our landscape. Often times we get too focused on our "big" parks: Mt Rainier, Olympic, North Cascades. We get focused on the grand landscape and the miles of glorious trails. But this year marks the centennial of the Washington State parks system and I wanted to devote a little time to our pretty little parks - well-loved by us but sometimes an after-thought as we drive by.

Looking for Trails to hike? Federation Forest has 12 miles of trails through big trees and along the river.

Looking for solitude? I saw a few people in the parking lot when I arrived and another photographer studying fungus on the Wind in the Woods trail. But as I set out on the Hobbit Trail, I had the forest, the birds, the streams and moss all to myself.

Worried about road noise? For most of my hike I was far enough away from the road to not hear the cars as they passed. I knew I was getting close to the 1/2-way point when I could once again hear traffic.

Looking for a little enchantment? Hike the Hobbit Trail and you will come across a hobbit village tucked away in the woods complete with gnomes and little blue dinosaurs. And then there's the moss. Moss everywhere - dripping from trees, covering the forest floor like a luxurious blanket, glowing in the sun.

Looking for raw nature? Ancient trees mixed with vine maples and sword ferns. Streams giggling through the exposed roots. It's nearly primeval.

My resolution is off to a good start. Won't you like to come explore with me?

A Guidebook Complaint?

Pete Lake, 6/7/09, 9 miles, 400 elevation

When I read a guidebook, I expect just a few things. Accuracy in mileage and elevation; a detailed description are basically what I want. Over the years I have been able to decipher the author and that they may be leaving out information. If an author glosses over a section of a trail then they either don't want to tell you something or they have never been there. I often wonder about this last. I know that with the older books by Ira Spring, he leaves out details because he didn't find them necessary - other things were important. But a few of the newer authors I'm wondering if they are leaving information out because they are writing the trail description from a map.

Take a recent hike to Pete Lake in Eastern Washington. The author of the guidebook tells you of all the animals you could see while hiking, but never really talks about the trail. The hiker will pass a swampy area (that can be seen on a map) and hike through trees (no duh, since we are in the mountains of Washington then you come out into a mountain bowl with a lake (well since we are in the mountains hiking to a lake I would think so.

What was left out were the 6 major stream crossings without bridges. Were there bridges and they washed away? Just mentioning bridges and stream crossings would tell us. The forest here does have a habit of taking out bridges on some stream crossings so they won't be washed away - if they do that wouldn't it be a good idea to mention that in the guidebook? To me a guidebook is there to give you as much necessary information to stay found and unhurt. leaving information out does the hiking community a dis-service.

Oh, and the hike to Pete Lake? A lovely stretch of the legs through the woods along a river. And you should go if you get the chance.

Autumn Solitude, Part II

West Cady Ridge, 11/8/08, 8 miles, 2200 elevation

Talk about solitude. Michael & I took Zillah to West Cady Ridge in the new Wild Sky Wilderness and saw not another person - except for the two people in their car at the trail-head possibly wondering if they were going to brave the weather. I've mentioned this before, if you want solitude on a popular Washington trail, head out after September with the threat of rain.

On this day there was no threat. No the rain was a reality, but being prepared we zipped on our rain gear and started out on the trail. So wet was the day, a stream rushed down the hillside in the trail just after we passed the wilderness boundary. A little rain nor a little trail mud were going to deter us. A friend had mentioned this was on of his favorite hikes and we were bound and determined to discover why.

Steadily we climbed up the hill through thick forest with salal and ferns for undergrowth giving lush autumn nourishment to the dozens of varieties of mushrooms growing along the trail. We soon came to forest without much undergrowth and meandered on a traverse, climbing slowly and gently. Several bridges along this section were rather treacherous having twisted during their slow rot. Then the climb became steeper again but we were soon catching glimpses of the fabulous view - or what we could only image was the fabulous view. Clouds clung to the mountainsides obscuring everything in a grey blanket.

The rain had stopped and we found an outcropping for a quick lunch. We didn't want to stay long for fear of catching a chill. The sun peaked through the clouds every now and then, teasing us with a hope of warmth and mountain views, but quickly hid again behind the clouds. We noticed Zillah was shivering so packed up the lunch to head back down the hill. In my mind, I could understand why our friend would love this hike, but I am hoping to see it again soon when the views don't have to be imagined. Except then, we won't have the absolute solitude we experienced on this trip.

A Visit to an Old Friend

Wallace Falls, 6.5 miles, 5/18/08

Back when I was first discovering the wonders of hiking, my sister & I found Wallace Falls. We would hike to the top of the falls and sit on the edge of the river watching the river rush past, racing to its tumult over the cliff. When my nephew was only a few months old, we introduced him to Wallace Falls on a very cold and chilly day - he fell asleep in the pack carrier my sister had perched on her back. This was our place to visit together in the spring when the green moss glowed against the wet black rock of the canyon walls.

I had revisited the falls only once again after I had returned home from school. Michael and I hiked through the golden maple leaves of autumn not long after we met. A quiet hike to a more sedate run-off for a blossoming romance.

This time, was with new friends met through the Mountaineers' Conditioning Hike Series. As it is early in the spring, the greens vibrated through the forest and new growth exploded along the river bed. We all gazed in wonder at the beauty around us in the company of the river's orchestra. The spring run-off exploded through the canyon, sending up mist from every fall, coating the walls in a glittering wet. And as in my memories with my sister, the mossed gleamed against the black rock.

Here I was, in the presence of an old friend, remembering the fun of sisterhood, shared with new friends. What day could be better?

CHS - Rattlesnake Ledge

Rattlesnake Ledge, 4/5/08, 4 miles, 1200 elevation

This year, Michael and I decided to get serious about hiking. OK, several of you out there are laughing, but really, we want to go on further hikes so need to work on our stamina and endurance. Our needs were answered with a class offered by the Mountaineers - The Conditioning Hike Series. The class takes you from shorter distance and lower elevation gain hikes to some extended and Higher elevation hikes (I think one of the graduation hikes is 17 miles). What better way to get ourselves ready for an adventurous hiking season?

Our first hike was to a favorite old haunt - Rattlesnake Ledge off of I-90 in North Bend. We met our group in the parking lot for brief introductions before walking around the north end of the lake to the start of the trail up. Now, Michael and I are slow hikers - there's a reason we call ourselves Trail Turtles, so it wasn't much time before we lost sight of our fellow hikers as they quickly made their way through the lush green of a coastal forest. Never wanting to be left behind, I began to push my pace so I could keep up, only to feel the nausea swell in my throat as my heart pounded through my chest. A trip up Rattlesnake generally would never make me feel this way, but I was pushing myself too hard to keep up and had to stop to regain my breath and heart rate.

We again met up with the group where the snow still covered the trail and obscured the ferns that grew so thickly near the start of our journey. After stretching Yak-Trax over our boots, the way became a little less slippery and we made good time to the ledge. Clouds hung in the sky threatening rain but none fell on our little respite overlooking the partially drained lake. Our leader broke out some chocolate covered hazelnuts to share with the group as we sat sharing stories and views.

Our way back down the hill was paused as Michael whipped out his saw and helped to take a fallen tree out of the trail. I learned a bit on this hike. The biggest lesson learned that signing up for this class is the thing to get my rear in condition.

Moss covered trees and a deep lake

Millersylvania, 1/12/08, 5 miles

On a drizzly Saturday morning, Michael & I headed out with a group of Mountaineers on a hike through the forests of Millersylvania State Park. We have often driven past the sign to the park on our adventures south of Olympia, but had never investigated this little gem set amongst the old moss covered trees and Deep Lake.

Our band of damp hikers meandered through old Doug-Firs and Cedars, crossed slippery bridges over marshes, admired the ancient maples dripping with moss and watched filtered sunlight glisten on the rain ripples of the lake. It had been cold, as is often the case in January but we needed a reason to get out for a little stretch of the legs. And there was no way a little rain was going to stop us from enjoying the rich forest textures of Millersyvania.

The lake is large - big enough to explore for a day by kayak. I'll have to remember that when wee get the kayaks ready this summer. (If we get them ready this summer - our hiking seems to take up so many weekends.) The trails meander through and connect to create miles of hiking pleasure. And during the winter, I can imagine you'd find solitude no matter where you went.

I did learn an important lesson while walking through a stand of moss-laden maples, I should never over look a little state park.