Daily Nature Fix: Dead Trees, Still Beautiful. (Original Photos)

   Good afternoon fellow nature enthusiasts.  Today's Daily Nature Fix is a prime example of the old adage "there's beauty in everything." Both Kylene and I love seeing picturesque dead trees on our travels and hikes.  That being said, we tend to photograph them pretty frequently.  On today's blog, I'll be sharing some of our favorites.  Well then, lets begin.

^^^ This is one of my favorites.  Here is a small stand of lodge pole pines located in the Lower Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park.  The whole area is riddled with hot springs, which have flooded the surrounding area with hot water and years of mineral deposits; killing the vegetation.  The calcified layer is pretty thick at this point and covering a foot or two of the tree trunks.  This photos also looking pretty cool in black and white.

^^^And old, dead tree with a view!  This old evergreen was standing right on the southern rim of the Grand Canyon.  Being on the edge of such a massive precipice, the winds are strong and somewhat constant; its hard to believe the expired tree hasn't blown over.  I'm sure it will some day, and I'm glad to have captured it before it does.

^^^A dead tree teeming with ivy, which very well may have killed it.  It stands watching over the extravagant Kylemore Abbey in County Galway, Ireland.  Many of the structures in this area were very gothic and the dead trees fit perfectly with the somewhat eerie flair. 

^^^For being in a rainforest full of trees and undergrowth, we saw very few dead trees during our time in Costa Rica.  This dead tree stump and it's supporting buttress roots were found on a hike in the Monteverde Cloud Forest in the western part of the country.

^^^This photo takes us back to Yellowstone in the Mammoth Hot Spring area.  As with the first photo when I mentioned the mineral layer actually being thick and a few feet up the tree trunks, this area takes that to the extreme.  Some of the deposit layers around here are over 20 feet thick!  In this photo, the trees you see are actually the very tops of normal size trees, which have been killed and over taken by the hot spring.

^^^I wasn't going to include this one because it's so close to the other Grand Canyon tree, but what the hell?  Green shrubs on the ground and foreground pine needs at the top still make it a cool picture.  Bonus dead tree photo!

  Thanks for reading! I post a nature-themed Daily Nature Fix blog every day. Please upvote if you enjoyed it and be sure to follow me @customnature so you'll never miss one!  See you tomorrow.  - Adam

***Daily Nature Fix is a daily blog showcasing the natural world.  It is all original content using photos, stories, and experiences from my own travels.***