The trail up to and the terrain immediately surrounding Burgess Lake is composed almost completely of rocks, and I was very much struck by the variety and beautiful colors of the lichens that cover literally all of them. My knowledge of lichens is sadly deficient, but I know that there are folks like my friend Beyenburgerin who are quite interested in them and much more knowledgeable than I, and since she reminded me of the beauty that many of them possess, I will post some of the photos that I brought back from my recent visit to the lake.
There are also some gorgeous areas of moss along the trail as it ascends through its small ravine, and this is how one section of it appears:
Now, the lichen art gallery:
Something to remember:
Lichens growing on rocks take many years, even hundreds of years, to establish their homes and when a careless placement of your hiking boot dislodges a patch of lichen from a rock, you may be undoing the patient work of centuries.
( In order to make the uploading process quicker, with the exception of the first and fifth photo, I uploaded to flickr only a small version of the photos. If anyone is interested in the full size version, I will be happy to provide it on request.)
