Of the considerable number of trees within the park, the majority are cone bearers. Some of these extend down the western slope well outside the boundary. The lower species meet and mingle with such broad-leaved trees as oak, maple, and madrone. Entering the lowest part of the park in the southwest corner via the deep canyon of Redblanket Creek are several trees not generally known to occur within the area. These include Brewer oak (_Quercus oerstediana_), western hemlock (_Tsuga heterophylla_), madrone (_Arbutus menziesii_), Pacific yew (_Taxus brevifolia_), golden chinquapin (_Castanopsis chrysophylla_), bigleaf maple (_Acer macrophyllum_), and Pacific dogwood (_Cornus nuttallii_). The mountain hemlock (_Tsuga mertensiana_) is characteristic of the Crater Lake region, its stately trunks, drooping limbs, and feathery foliage providing woodland beauty that is never forgotten. It is common to the inner wall of the crater and seeks high altitudes on mountain peaks, where its growth is stunted and its limbs beaten down by storms. An imposing stand greets the visitor at Annie Spring, continuing on both sides of the highway to the rim, its large trunks suggestive of the hundreds of years these trees have been growing undisturbed in their mountain fastness. Here, indeed, is the forest in all of its pristine glory. It occurs in heavy stands along the road around the lake, enhancing the beauty of the Rim Drive. The great trunks crowd each other for space beneath the shade of their lofty crowns. An outstanding tree of the park is the whitebark pine (_Pinus albicaulis_), often short and stunted and grotesquely twisted, fringing the rim and crowning the highest crests. It illustrates best among trees the stern struggle for existence. The lodgepole pine (_Pinus contorta_), most prolific of the park’s conifers, covers thousands of acres of dense stand and extends down the cool canyons to and beyond the park boundaries. The Shasta red fir (_Abies magnifica shastensis_), a stately tree with its regularly meshed branches and large bract-covered cones, is an abundant tree scattered throughout the hemlock forest. The western white pine (_Pinus monticola_), while usually a middle-sized tree, furnishes the largest individual in the park, having a diameter of approximately 8 feet. More abundant along water courses and about wet meadows, can be seen the slender spires of the alpine fir (_Abies lasiocarpa_). In some places this tree continues over the rim to the inner wall of the crater. Engelmann spruce (_Picea engelmannii_) is usually confined to the bottoms of deep canyons. Other trees include the white fir (_Abies concolor_), Douglas fir (_Pseudotsuga taxifolia_), and sugar pine (_Pinus lambertiana_), all companions of the ponderosa pine.