Mount Rainier: Trail of the Shadows

Lat: 46.7514948, Lon: -121.8148908
Day, 2012
3/31/2012

This afternoon we also visited Mount Rainier National Park. The temperature was noticibly cooler than at Pack Forest (maybe about 35-40 degrees F) and the elevation was also higher. These weather conditions made it possible for the park to withstand a lot of snow on the ground, around 3-6 inches in most places, but up to possible 2-3 feet in other areas. The entire park, or at least the trail we visited, was completely deciduous. There were many downed trees, lichen, and dead trees everywhere. An interesting thing about the park was that there were a lot of new, younger species growing out of the older downed species. We saw a lot of little Western Hemlocks growing out of downed Cedars and Mountain Hemlocks. It was interesting to learn that this is something only seen in deciduous forests rather than coniferous forests. There was also an abundance of ferns (mostly Sword Ferns) all over the forest grounds. They looked like mats of green covering most of the ground, especially nest to nearby trees. Because the forest was deciduous, we saw a lot of Shelf Fungus both on living and dead/downed trees and also many different species of lichen. We saw Mathusala's Beard hanging from the leaves of many branches, Pink Spotted Lichen on the trunks of trees, orange lichen, as well as spotty light green Fructose Lichen also on tree trunks.

The dominant species seemed to be Western Hemlocks and Cedars. We saw one huge Douglas Fir but other than that, there weren't too many.
What I found to be the most interesting was the fact that new plants could grown on dead ones. Dead/downed trees were covered in moss and tons of lichen. We actually saw a rather large grown tree growing out of the side of a downed tree. That seemed to be the trend of this trail: moss, lichen, and other species (especially tiny Western Hemlocks) growing out of or on top of pretty much anything downed or dead. Another interesting part of this trail was a small creek we passed by called Copper Creek. This creek was a dark orange/bronze color which may have been coming from the minerals draining down from upstream. The color was so pigmented that it was actually spreading and dyeing the nearby soil and plants like Sword Ferns that covered a good portion of the ground.

Species List:
Mountain Hemlock
Methuselah’s beard
Western Hemlock
Pacific Silver Fir
Shelf fungus
Salal
Gravis scripta lichen
Fruticose lichen
Liver wart

Posted on April 21, 2012 06:34 PM by lisad22