Vine Maple Reds

Day 353: The morning dawned rainy and cold, and I had work to do at Mt. Rainier National Park. A friend was hosting a geocaching CITO ("cache in, trash out") event, looking for volunteers to help close down a campground for the winter. Our jobs were to pick up debris, tear down the temporary housing (big canvas tents) used by Student Conservation Association volunteers during the summer, stack the tent platforms so that they can be covered with tarps and tip up the picnic tables so they won't be collapsed by the weight of snow. We worked for three hours to complete the tasks, including hauling away several pickup loads of downed limbs. It rained lightly during the first hour, but we'd all come prepared.

After the work was done and I was ready to head homeward, I took a few detours in search of photographic subjects. This Vine Maple (Acer circinatum) was growing in a landscape planting at Longmire. Washington's infamous white skies provided the perfect backdrop for its lovely Autumn colors. This seems to be a "red year," one of those rare occasions when the Vine Maple puts on its best show. "Red years" are determined by many factors including temperature and soil moisture, and many times, the trees simply turn yellowish orange and then go brown.