Mushrooms Galore

Over four-day fall break, my mom and I delved deep into the woods of the Blue Mountains. Armed only with a photocopied map from my environmental studies professor -- the trail roughly delineated by a yellow highlighter -- and the Google Maps app, we were in a little over our heads.

We finally knew our location when we crossed the North Fork Walla Walla River.

Though the hike was rather nerve-wracking, and we lost my notebook and ourselves more than once, we found time to admire the plethora of mushrooms all around!






  



And just so you don't get fungal overload... here are some photosynthesizing plants! The three species of conifer were identified by everyone's favorite underqualified dendroligst, yours truly, so take the captions as guesses more than facts.

Grand fir. (Coulda sworn it was a hemlock...)

Douglas fir.

Engelmann spruce.

Those poisonous snowberries, straight from a Disney movie.

Abstract insect artwork.