We hiked from Lac du Bois to the top of Wheeler Mountain passing from the upper grasslands in to the Douglas fir forests.

Witch’s hair lichens hung from branches on the way up.   The sun shone through the lichens and wolf lichen capped the branches.

A hairy woodpecker ignored us as we hiked by.

On top of the mountain near a pond was a very large juniper, heavily laden with berries.

On the barren south-facing lava flows star moss stood out with yellow hues on the black rock.

Tortula ruralis is green in summer, but turns yellow-red in the fall.

We hike, but we stop to “smell the roses” (and to examine the mosses, herbs, lichens, grasses, insects, and wildlife along the way too).