RHH's photos with the keyword: douglas fir

We discovered these last year and found out that they are the male cones of the Douglas Fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii. They are very short lived and soon disintegrate leaving the female cones, one of which is shown hanging down, to grow and remain on the tree. These male cones are usually a brighter red, but these were still holding water drops on a wet morning and I liked the photo for that reason. They were photographed on the Bowman Beach trail in Deception Pass State Park.

This was taken while hiking the Lake Ann trail near Mount Baker with my brother Tim on a very wet day. We were on our way back when this dead branch against the background of the other trees and moss caught our attention. The branch and some of the trees are Douglas Fir but I believe the tree in the background on the far right is Mountain Hemlock. In any case the photo catches something of what our forests are like.

When we saw these on the Douglas Firs at Pass Island we thought they were new growth, but learned later that these are the male cones. We didn't recognize them as cones because the female cones are pendant and look like cones even when they are very tiny. These did not look much like cones.

This is a rather weather-beaten Douglas Fir growing on the bluffs above Bowman Bay. I love trees like this and am always attempting to get photos of them but usually with rather limited success.

The Grove of the Patriarchs is on the eastern side of Mount Rainier National Park and is a small area of old growth forest, Western Red Cedars, Western Hemlocks and Douglas Firs, some of them over 1000 years old, that is on a small island in the Ohanapecosh River and the area around it. This is actually part of the trail to the island, but shows one of these massive old trees, a Western Red Cedar. The day was at an end when we visited the area and the light was fading fast, so I did not get very many good pictures.

Taken while hiking the Humes Ranch trail in the Elwha Valley of Olympic National Park. This was quite typical of the forest along the trail and I believe it is mainly Douglas Fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii. In places the trees grew so close together you could not see through them.