7-11-04: This tree has taken a unique position on the nurse stump theme.

7-11-04: It has found shelter inside the hollow center of this former giant.

7-11-04: Intense competition between a pair of trees for this nurse stump.

7-11-04: A close view of the tangle of roots.

7-18-04: This summer, our friends Echota and Josh from Saint Louis moved to Seattle. I decided to start them on their introduction to the Pacific Northwest with a trip to Ranier. I'd been meaning to go out to try to get some photos of alpine flowers, and Ranier is certainly a spectacular introduction to the area's mountains. We elected to go in the Sunrise entrance to the park, an area I hadn't been to before.

7-18-04: On the way in we passed over a bridge near the White River. Its called this for its color – more gray than white, but decidedly opaque compared to most of the waterways in the area. It is runoff from melting glaciers, and the color comes from stone that the glaciers are grinding into a fine powder, which is suspended in the water as it pours down the mountain.

I like the contrast of the off-white flowers and the gray water behind.

7-18-04: I like the frosted look on the edges of the leaves of this alpine lupine.

7-18-04: One thing I like about wildflowers in the alpine areas is the sense of everything growing on top of each other. This valarian is growing right under a stunted alpine spruce tree. In the forests of the valleys, the first branches of the trees would be many feet above our heads, not to mention the flowers.

7-18-04: We kept hearing the marmots whistling in the fields. Along one stretch of road, though, they were hanging out right by the side of the trails, just doing their marmot things and completely ignoring the strange two-leggers wandering around.

7-18-04: Its a harsh life for the trees up there, and usually they die once they get to be just a little larger than the land will support. The stark, bleached white wood is striking against the living green and blue sky.