Stone Valley Trails

I went to the Stone Valley Trails this afternoon to see if the Bloodroot were blooming yet. They are poking through the ground but are just mini missile shapes at this point, a white pointed tip wrapped tightly in the leaf that accompanies each bloom. With a few more days of warm weather we should have blooms. As long as I had my gear I wandered farther downstream on the East side of the river not expecting to get any good photos because the light was so harsh but it was just right for this back lit portrait of evergreens on a stone ridge island. I made several adjustments and then "simplified" the image with a filter. The result looks like a painting but it is a photograph.

After turning back below the last set of waterfalls I came on a young (college age) couple just off the trail. The guy was carving something in one of the trees. At first I thought I'd just pass but then I yelled at them to stop it. Carving things in trees is not something they should be doing. A tree is a living thing with enough challenges to survival without thoughtless people wounding them on a whim, giving insects and disease a opening to invade the tree. I'm sure they probably think I'm an old grouch but I prefer to think of myself more like the Lorax.

Canon 7D, 18-135 EFs lens.