Old Growth Forests.

When I can't get into the forests and mountains, or out to a river, I have to dwell there in memories. Here, then, are some images from a bushwhack Andy Kunkle and I made into the Pisgah National Forest in 2011 to locate a grove of old growth hardwoods. (There were once grand old hemlocks there, but those are all dead now from infestation of the Asian pest, Hemlock wooly adelgid.)

The diversity of the hardwood trees is phenomenal. However, all of the hemlocks are dead and only their standing corpses remain.

A typical large Tulip poplar in the forest.

This area was the first National Forest in the USA. It was the initial tract of land that became what we know now as the Pisgah National Forest.

Fall Colors Colorado and Fall Colors Carolina:

Some contrasts in the Autumn colors I witnessed late last month in Colorado and late this month here in North Carolina:

As you can see, in Colorado the Fall colors come principally from one tree: The aspen. While here in North Carolina the range of deciduous trees is vast and the colors come from literally hundreds of species.

Cove Hardwood Forests

 I've visited many wild places in my life. But I reckon that, so far, my favorite places are southern Appalachian cove hardwood forests. Unfortunately, there's not quite the variety of trees in them that there was when I was a young man, but they're still amazing places. Even if two of the cornerstones of such forests--the Eastern and Carolina hemlocks--are gone now from that scenery.

I never tire of going into such forests and just sitting still and listening to the place and watching it around me as I am small and quiet beneath the green canopy.

 Following are some photographs I took in 2011 on a hike into the Mackey Mountain area where the forests are old and magnificent.

Click to embiggen.

Alone on the slopes with the big trees.

One of the best poplar groves I've visited outside the Great Smoky Mountains.

We followed the stream up and up the mountain slopes until we found the big trees.

Andy Kunkle and Boone the dawg.