You'll be walking along near the bottom of a north slope with lots of ponderosa pines and Douglas fir trees. The Douglas fir is one of our favorite trees, and we call it the 'friendly fir'...short needles which are soft as fur when you touch them. The spruce tree needles also are short, but are stiff and will stick you...ouch! The Douglas fir trees dominate a lot of the moist north slopes at this elevation, but this area gets a lot of sunlight resulting in lots of ponderosa pines.
We find the Douglas fir cones fascinating. The scales on these cool cones look like a mouse going into its hole complete with the hind legs and tail showing...look on the forest floor and check 'em out.
You might want to bring a hiking stick along with you. When finished, we suggest hiking up the Grey Rock trail and finding those nifty caches...have fun!
JUST A REMINDER...PLEASE DO NOT COLLECT WILD FLOWERS, PINE CONES OR PRETTY ROCKS. WILD STUFF BELONGS IN THE WILD. THANKS.
We thank Scottish botanist, David Douglas, for whom the tree was named. Congratulations to Denali41 and face-lickin' puppy Teewinot for the FTF!