Lodgepole pine

But that steam congregating and forming ice is exactly why this is a great time to go, especially early in the morning or late on a cold day.

When I wander Norris at this time of the year, I always start at the back basin where the boardwalk winds through Lodgepole Pine and heads toward Steamboat Geyser, which is the world's tallest active geyser.

It can send water more than 300 feet into the air, but the eruptions are unpredictable and you'll be incredibly lucky if you do see it erupt.

However, that steam is always coming out and there's minor eruptions and all the trees around that blast zone are If it's cold enough, get covered in crystallized ice that's really pretty.

Soils are highly variable, with volcanic cones and buttes and frigid soils in the higher Grand Fir mixed forest.

Natives are Ponderosa Pine, Lodgepole Pine, Gary or Oregon White Oak, Doug Fir, Antelope Bitterbrush, Mock Orange, Serviceberry, Arrowleaf Balsamroot, blue bunch wheatgrass, and Idaho fescue.

This region is really important to think about firewise design and defensible space, the use of drip irrigation and mulch, and plants that are rated for both drought and hard freezes.

This area includes sub-regions of the Yakima Plateau and slopes, the Grand Fir Mixed Forest, Oak Conifer, Eastern Cascades, Columbia Foothills.

Meyer Skis, who's based out of Colorado, you know, we partnered with them about seven years ago now when we first started doing some mitigation on the mountain.

So basically the spruce beetles came in, right, and just started killing all of our Anglewood Pines or Lodgepole Pines.

So front side of the mountain looks very different now than it did 10 years ago.

But while we're harvesting these trees, like what can we do with them? So Meyers Skis we partnered with and they literally were taking some of the wood from the trees on Monarch and cutting them down, processing them and everything.