Location Taken: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Time Taken: October 2012
I came across this two-tone tree along the path one day.
If you look closely, you can see that the part that isn’t green is also not the brown of dead pine needles.
Instead, it’s a deep purple-red. The color of a ripe plum. They do go beautifully with the green-yellow color of the other part of the tree, but most trees don’t bother with simple things like complementary colors.
It might be dead needles. It’s possible that this particular species just has a quirk for odd colors. I don’t live in the area, or anywhere close to where these trees grow, so I don’t know the patterns of its life.
In some ways, though, it’s incredible the entirety of this tree isn’t that purple-red. You see, the path I was on was the one by the Grand Prismatic Spring and the Excelsior Geyser Crater. Both of which emit a lot of warm steam full of all sorts of natural chemicals. And this tree was downwind of both.
Indeed, it was frequently covered by steam in the short time I was close enough to tell. It was when I walked past it the first time, on the way towards the geothermal features. When I returned whence I had come, though, the winds had shifted enough that the valiant tree was visible, and in fact well lit by the lowering sun.
I’d almost stopped looking for photos at that point, actually. Remember what I said about steam full of chemicals? I’d been getting lungful after lungful of that less-than-fresh air for the last 15 minutes, and it was really starting to get to me. I spent most of the next day feeling downright awful because of that steam, as my body tried its best to clear out the chemicals. It was a really potent mix.
Incredible that this tree does so well so close to that volatile mix, isn’t it? Even if it has developed a few odd traits in the mean time.
