Nick and I took a hike last Friday afternoon which raised some of my favorite questions:
Are these alders or maples? (See previous post on Vine Maples.) Now I'm leaning again to maples but does that mean vine maples?
The leaf picture, I'm almost sure, is a very young big leaf maple; isn't it? and while I am SURE that the tree in the foreground of the creek is indeed an alder: what kind is it? red or white? This is the Hemlock Trail, btw, or at least the lead-up to it. We started at the northernmost trail head on Chuckanut Drive.
Stop by the Ranger Station on the way up to Mt. Baker and they have some large and lovely trees, including this Big Leap Maple. I marvel at how these maples make their way among the evergreens. You can pick them out on a hillside, especially in the spring or the fall, with their color change. It was the very first tree I identified here in Washington State, while camping at Silver Lake, not far from here. All of the trees seemed so much alike, so I was looking for something distinctive - and these Big Leaf Maples, with their huge, pancake-size leaves, are certainly that!