I live in New England now and am used to the fall colors up here, but one of my favorite types of fall foliage is the western larch - specifically the alpine larch (larix lyallii) - found in Washington (as well as Idaho and Montana). Unlike evergreens, they lose their foliage each year as winter weather rolls in. The needles turn a brilliant yellow as the plant reabsorbs nutrients from them. It can take a couple of weeks for the leaves to go from green to yellow, but once they hit that yellow phase, they only have a week or so before they began to drop off en masse. Timing a trip to see them can be tricky due too due to moody fall weather.
Interestingly, larches are very shade intolerant and thus can't compete with evergreens, so you often find larches on exposed and rocky slopes, and usually entire groves of them at that. They can survive in thin, rocky, and fairly acidic soils too and seeing them perched on a steep cliff or on a rock in a lake is always a treat.
I figured I'd share some of my favorite larch photos from the Cascade Range. They're from different trips but I hope they showcase the diversity of mountain landscapes this tree can grow in. All of these were handheld shots. Would have benefitted from a tripod but I've been leaving it behind lately due to weight issues with my pack and back pain. Hopefully getting those resolved soon and lightening my load so I can bring it again.
1-2) Larches growing on very steep slopes. Not an ideal environment and these ones probably won't ever grow as large as those at lower elevations, but that they manage to survive up here is pretty wild. The little one on the rock in the middle of the lake is especially improbably to me. It's likely at least 30-40 years old, too.
3) Much more typical terrain for larches. It's hard to tell the scale from the photo alone but these ones are larger than in the first two photos. Not the best lighting since I was too lazy to get the early start needed for sunrise.
4) Sunset in the North Cascades. It was very smoky due to unseasonably warm October temperatures and nearby wildfires, hence the muted alpenglow. I thought it was interesting how the sun lit up the ridge in the foreground but not the one in the middle ground due to positioning of some of the peaks behind me.
5) A sunset panorama from the eastern side of the Cascades. One of those situations where perhaps a panorama isn't warranted and might draw focus away from any particular feature, but I couldn't help myself.
(Also: does anyone have tips for resizing/processing photos for upload on this website? 1.4 MB seems astonishingly small for a max upload size...I have to resize + fiddle with quality when exporting from photoshop. If I only went by resize alone, the longest edge of the photos would be around 1200 px or less before they were < 1.4 MB. On my monitor, those photos look really crummy.)
NIKON D61024.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 lens24mmf/8.01/160s320 ISO0.0 EV
NIKON D61024.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 lens24mmf/8.01/125s400 ISO0.0 EV
NIKON D61024.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 lens70mmf/8.01/125s200 ISO-0.3 EV
NIKON D61024.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 lens62mmf/7.11/160s400 ISO-0.7 EV
NIKON D61024.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 lens34mmf/6.31/200s500 ISO-0.3 EV
Spectacular representations of a stunning area. One of my bucket list items is to see the Larches in the Cascades but I'm glad to view these as a reminder.
I have photographed the larch around the Enchantments one time. It was one of my most memorable photo outings. A very nice collection of images, Justine!
Beautiful images of a favorite subject. I was a child of New England who fled West and spent 30 years in the Washington Cascades. There is nothing like larch season on the east slope of the North Cascades. I now live in North East Oregon where we call them Tamaracks. I see them from my house but it's not the same as the view from Little Giant Pass.
Super shots. Love the composition in the 1st 2. The little lit trees repeating shape and color high up on the rocks really adds a nice flavor to these. Wonderful light in that 4th one. I would like to see how it would look without the smoke, but it is very nice with it.
