Second in grandeur only to the lake itself are Mazama's deep forests of giant mountain hemlock. This tree is common along the rim, where it descends the basin walls to the water's edge, and climbs the flanks of the surrounding ridges almost to timberline. It forms the main body of cover of the higher elevations of the park, extending downward into the lodgepole pine belt. It is a common and conspicuous tree, and yet because its finest stands are slightly removed from the main paths of travel, it is seldom seen in its full magnificence.

Over the greater part of its range, the mountain hemlock is a moderate-sized tree, growing to a maximum of 2-1/2 feet in diameter and 90 feet in height. Here, however, it grows to 6 feet and more in diameter and 120 to 130 feet in height in the most favored spots. These giants grown in moist, nearly level areas surrounded by dryer ridges and slopes clothed by smaller hemlock. Here the forest floor is clear of brush and clean of tangles of fallen limbs and trunks. The ground is carpeted by small green herbs and shrubs whose thin leaves glow with life in the shafts of golden sun. Beneath these small plants the deeper layer of duff is soft to walk upon, and silhouetted against them, the massive blue-gray trunks rise straight and tall in great colonnades, holding aloft a canopy of green. Butterflies and other insects flit and buzz among the slanting rays of sunshine. Here the air is still and sounds are faint and muffled. Here there is rest and peace.

Go and see these most graceful of trees at their finest. Seek them where they hide deep in the trackless forest among their lesser fellows, and feel the thrill of discovering for yourself these cathedrals of the forest.