Javin Elliff Photography

May 29, 2025

Spring in the Forest

I love wandering the dark, damp forests of western Washington in the spring. The days are cool, the greens are rich, the bugs are not yet voracious, and the solitude is prime. Indeed, one of my favorite times of the year is when the foliage hits peak greenness–when the leaves, fronds and blades have finished growing and nothing has yet faded.

This scene caught my eye. Look closely and you'll see that the large roots of an old Sitka spruce have created a shallow puddle. The natural terrace has provided western skunk cabbage with the moisture it needs to grow, and a place for frogs to lay their eggs (there were several clusters under the surface). Just one small example of biodiversity you see in an old growth forest.

Roots from an old growth tree create a small puddle, which has created the perfect habitat for several clusters of frog eggs.

A few large red cedars in the rainforest.
A beautiful spring day on the river.
A cow Roosevelt elk in dark second growth forest.
Warm light in an old growth forest dominated by western hemlock.
A trillium erupts from a carpet of oxalis.
Light rays break through some spring clouds above several layers of forested terraces and ridges.
A trail in the temperate rainforest under a canopy of vine maple and western hemlock.
A dense carpet of oak ferns and oxalis.
A single frond of a bracken fern against a dark background.
A strangely growing western hemlock tree in the forest.
A carpet of oxalis and sword ferns in the temperate rainforest of the Pacific Northwest.
Misty clouds reveal the subtle layers of the forested ridges.
An ancient western redcedar in the temperate rainforest of the Pacific Northwest.
A stand of mature Douglas fir trees in the temperate rainforest.

I was excited to see this Wilson's warbler, a tiny burst of color in the forest, flitting from branch to branch. This little guy weighs just a quarter of an ounce, spends the winters from Mexico to Panama, and migrates up the west coast as far as Alaska. It is amazing that something so small can travel so far—not just once, but year after year.

A tiny yellow warbler brings a burst of brightness to the forest.

I was wandering in an area that I thought I had never explored, when I came across this western redcedar with a giant mass of contorted roots at its base. I recognized it at once, and realized that I had been there before. It is hard to keep track.

This tree probably began life from the tall stump of another tree, which would explain why the trunk grew so strange.

A large western redcedar with a contorted ball of roots near its base.

The sun was setting when I took this photo. It was much darker than it appears, but this is an eight second exposure.

Rainforest Stream