Water Drops

Sitka Mountain Ash, a small tree or shrub, provides much of the autumn color in the Cascades. This examle was photographed along the Chain Lakes trail near Iceberg Lake.

This Geranium leaf (the plant was not blooming) was photographed near Hog Lake in the channeled scablands of eastern Washington.

Photographed on a rainy day in Sinlahekin Natural Area. Black Hawthorn, Crataegus douglasii grows at lower elevations throughout the Northwest and is often a home for magpie nests.

I believe this is a branch of Sitka Mountain-ash, a shrub-like plant that has white flowers in spring and red berries in autumn. This branch, however, has been touched by frost and the berries are purple and shriveled and the leaves, too, have withered. I photographed this along the Lake Ann trail when hiking there with my brother.

These are the seed heads of the Western Pasque Flower, photographed by my wife along the Berg Lake trail in Mount Robson Provincial Park. It had rained the night before, so everything was very wet when we hiked the trail in the morning. Because these seed heads look liike a wild head of hiar the Western Pasque Flower, Anemone occidentalis, is sometimes called the Old Man of the Mountains. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-berg-la...

Taken while hiking the Avalanche Lake trail in Glacier National Park on a wet morning.

Taken at Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park while hiking on a wet morning.