Symphony in Afterlife No. 1
Oregon · USA
Death and destruction made for an eerie but entrancing beauty on this gloriously sunny day when we explored an area of the Mt. Hood National Forest ravaged by the 2011 Dollar Lake Fire (see this entry in Tom Kloster's wonderful Wy'East Blog), touched off one year prior nearly to the day by a lightning storm. Stands of Douglas-fir snags had portions of their cindered bark give way to the elements and gravity, exposing swaths of richly-colored heartwood reminiscent of the rind of Sicilian red oranges--a striking contrast against the deep-blue high-altitude sky. The ascending alignment of trees here put me in mind of a pipe organ or musical bars.
