Roots - Portland Zoo

Issue #124 - The Gardens of Portland, Oregon

Located high in the hills on the west side of Portland, just west of the Japanese Garden, is the Hoyt Arboretum. The former site of the Multnomah County Poor Farm is now an outdoor tree museum. Established in 1931 as the home of the largest collection of conifers in the world and spread across 175 acres, the arboretum has over 800 labeled species clustered among the remaining native trees in ten separate groups. Find the specific type of tree you would like to photograph–coast redwoods, giant sequoias, bald cypress, larch, Himalayan birch, ginkgo, bristlecone pines, magnolias and bamboo–on their map. Then follow the trails through dense groves of tall trees that do not naturally grow this far north, like bald cypress that normally grow in southern swamps. These are fully grown, mature trees that look like they have always been here. Small labels identify the different varieties without spoiling your photography. At the bottom of the canyon, the Redwood Trail crosses a small stream and turns to climb the other slope. At that point, a very large cedar clings to a steep hillside above the stream. Its roots have created a pattern covering the hillside, exposed by winter floods pouring down the canyon. I photographed the diagonal lines of roots as both horizontal and vertical images.

My newsletter #124 covers many more trees and flowers plus some of my favorite photo spots in Portland.