QUEEN OF THE CASCADES

[Music] these scenes with life of the of the Pacific Northwest many people from the air 9,000 ft above everything along up its 14,4 the Summits of all the Peaks around you can be surveyed my wife Julie and I went there for a number of reasons that there we could find study photograph wildlife in foures without leaving the mment the lowest zone is the humid transition here on the West rainfall produce forests and giant trees like the Douglas fur the Western Hemlock and the Western red cedar these trees are coveted by the log industry and sometimes even the establishment of a park cannot protect [Music] them one of the largest mammals in this zone is the mule deer the mountainer herd about 600 strong remains in good balance over the years without [Music] control this one is just Contracting its PCH to to bring cut into its mouth deer like cows are ruminants and quickly swallow food as it's browsed this food passes into the PCH where it remains until the deer has an opportunity to sit quietly regurgitate and chew its cud as the saying goes porcupines Are Not Unusual in itants of this Zone this is a young fellow and he's having some difficulty climbing the log during winter porcupines feed on the bark of trees and can be destructive in this way but in summer they eat leaves and new Twigs grasses and succulent plants this is the long-eared owl most owls pass the daylight hours in Hollow trees or wherever they can get away from the light and Hunt during the night the long-eared owl usually spends the day in the thick foliage of evergreen trees notice how the pupil exposed to the light is smaller than the one in the shadow a landmark in the park is Longmire Meadows named for James longm who discovered these Mineral Springs in 1883 he he had dreams of developing them as health Waters and even pushed in a road and built a small hotel this is one of the Springs called iron mik because of the apparent iron content of the [Music] water the Mineral Springs are now a fake spot of the band tail [Music] pigeons they Roost in the tall trees surrounding the meadow but dropped down to drink the water so rich in minerals they came close to extinction at one time but were saved as were other species of American birds by the passage in 1913 of the federal law for the protection of migratory Birds this is the Rocky Mountain elk or WAP and was introduced here from the Yellowstone region the Olympic elk no longer ranges here but the wapa doesn't differ greatly except it's a bit smaller and lighter colored harlequinn Ducks often are seen on these Fast Mountain Waters but it's the Beaver Pond and the wet Willow bottom areas that are most prolific of Wildlife and Julie and I concentrated on them it's in this environment we found the Rufus hummingbird the tiniest of birds their wings are about a quarter of their total weight they fly backwards up down sideways with wings beating about 80 times a second this one is feeding on the nectar of the Oregon betany this environment too is the favorite nesting spot of the Wilson's warbler the black cap is very distinctive and of the yellow warbler an all yellow bird which builds a nest of woven wood fibers and grass it eats and feeds its young on insects and spiders all the Mountain Streams Rush down to the Sea along their Banks as they descend the vegetation and Wildlife changes the Canadian Zone extends from 3 up to 5,000 ft Comet Falls is one of the highest and most spectacular of the many Falls of Mount reneer it drops 320 ft at such Falls you're likely to encounter zipper notice the white m brain as it blinks its eye this is an additional protection for the eye to be used we believe as it searches underwater for food this bird gets its name from the characteristic bobbing in its walk it likes to Nest behind the Falls where it can keep its home damp [Music] reneer is also famous for its color never grazed as untouched as the land can be these Meadows of wild flowers themselves are worth to climb this far the rock faces are splotched with the red of cliff [Music] panaman and here's where the common bear grass flourishes this is the blossom of the cliff [Music] penan the varied thrush is a bird of the mountain slopes very much like our Robin in shape and size in the hudsonian zone we've almost reached the tree line biologists tell us that every th000 ft we go up Mount reneer is the equivalent of traveling 400 m toward the North Pole so we seem to meet spring time and time again the Avalanche Lily is the first to bloom after the snow melts this Bloom is about 2 in across and stands about a foot high there may be several flowers on a stem the blue grouse so well camouflaged in its environment that it could easily be missed this is the female the Cascade hor Marmet named for its white mantle is one of the largest North American rodents 20 in long with a 9in tail weight about 15 lb these are the only moderate sized mammals that live in the high country all year round they probably take themselves very seriously but I found them very funny to watch la [Music] the wrestling activity is likely connected with courtship or territory in some way they don't seem to be hurting each other but little is known about it when the match is over they'll go back to eating and digging [Music] casson's Finch is a mountain bird it takes a lot of dedication to get a look at one in the flesh or should I say feather the ground squirrel also lives here another member of the rodent family this one is called the Cascades golden mantle ground squirrel like the Marmet strictly [Music] vegetarian here too we found a blueg grous going through a courtship performance or maybe it was a rehearsal we couldn't see a female anywhere entering the Arctic Alpine zone is like going to a different world vegetation is sparse depending on the snowfall the open slopes are not cleared until July or early August one wonders how and why life of any kind would choose to be here yet there's the water pippet feeding amongst the Alpine yellow mimulus and finding insect food enough for its needs and there's the white tailed tarmigan this is the male showing more white feathers than the female and the red eye patch this bird even has feathers on its feet and therefore it can walk more easily in deep snow the hen will usually lay from 6 to eight eggs but as many as 15 have been reported she nests on the hillside and her coloration camouflages her from Marauders for chicks are precocious as soon as they hatch they're able to walk and feed themselves and all they need from their mother is guidance at this early stage and her warmth during the cold nights and stormy weather of this elevation up as we approach the snow fields near 7,000 ft we encountered in mid July the first flowers of spring pushing through the snow itself the glacier Lily not far away we saw Hy Marmet that looked as though he was making his first Springtime appearance after a hard winter his teeth were very long proof that he hadn't been using them much since they grow continuously he seemed a little thin and scrawny looking to me there are about 400 mountain goats in Mount reneer Park these are well- adapted creatures I know a few occasions perhaps after an extremely heavy snowfall when they can be found below 7,000 ft usually there's enough wind in these elevations to keep areas clear where they can find food this is a nanny [Music] one further reason Julie and I chose Mount reer to visit is the fact that here we could see and even Traverse a number of glaciers notably the emmans and the Nali however this peak has 26 named glaciers originating on it and 15 of these are classed as major ones the emmans is the largest a mile wide and 5 Mi long the glacial action creates the greatest change in the mountain which is loosely held together and easily eroded in 1963 the emmans had so undermined a satellite of reneer that it collapsed and sent 14 million cubic yards of rocks spilling down the glacier that speeds up to 300 mph the debris from this happening still covers the Emmon surface [Music] this is the Nali [Music] Glacier the snow fields and lower reaches of reneer are favorite tourist spots and attract large numbers of visitors all summer The Paradise Ice Caves are only 3 miles from the road this is the bottom end of the paradise Glacier still buried under last year's snowfall the caves are carved out of the glacial Ice by the flow of warm air over the outlet [Music] stream to show how quickly the mountain weather can change I shot this sequence of time-lapse pictures it speeds up but in reality it almost seems to happen this fast 1 minute the Sun the next you're standing in dense fog precipitation in this area averages about 100 in a year add and above 5,000 ft it's mostly snow below that rain which explains the existence of so many glaciers where Glaciers are formed because more snow falls each year than the amount that melts each summer when this continues over a long period the snow is compacted into ice and begins to move as a mass the reneer masses totaling about 34 Square mil of ice move down about 12 in a day to see our glaciers Julie and I set off to climb Rene's last 7,000 ft to the [Music] top the first thing we saw up there was a lonely [Music] ant then winged insects and a spider and we could only believe they came up on the Wind we found Red Snow just below 10,000 ft this is what Mountaineers call it and it is really a tiny plant known as blue green algae a phenomenon of the high places [Music] at camp mure at the 10,000 ft level we were to pick up the young guides who would accompany us to the top because we were traveling to some extent on glaciers experienced guides were necessary were such as the shifting and changing action of these ice masses that yesterday's Trail could well be impassible today there were climbing techniques to be learned rules of behavior to be outlined to us for we were venturing into completely unfamiliar territory and some [Music] danger all I had to do here was set up my camera and pointed and I had a breathtaking shot these pictures speak for themselves [Music] e [Music] for me this experience on the queen of the Cascades was Unforgettable and not just because I struggled up this Mighty mountain with a few extra pounds of camera gear it was Unforgettable because as I went through it I was humbled by the Grandeur of this mountain and it saddened me to know that there were men and women who didn't care about such things who were shortsighted and narrow-minded enough to allow destruction to come to our land in a thousand places all in the name of progress I say let there be more and more protected areas such as this so that man can learn to [Music] care o [Music]