Figure 1 – Dragon in the Olympic National Park, August 19, 2016, IPhone photograph, (c) AB & DE Wolf 2016.

Dragons – we know them as mythical creatures, and I learned from the Wikipedia that there are two mythic traditions:

• European dragons, typically depicted as reptilian creatures with animal-level intelligence,. four legs, and a detached set of wings.
• Asian dragon, more serpentine creatures with above-average intelligence, four legs, and wingless.

And it is an important point that someone is always headed off to slay the dragon. In our cultures dragons have major great  spiritual significance. They are “revered as representative of the primal forces of nature, religion and the universe. They are associated with wisdom—often said to be wiser than humans—and longevity.” And, of course, they often possess some form of magic or other supernatural power. There is, after all, this ability to breath fire. Oh, and, many can talk! Pete’s Dragon, Puff the Magic Dragon, The Reluctant Dragon …

I remember as a boy being disappointed that dragons do not really exist. Somehow it seemed that the world was less without them, having loss a major force of magic. Magic was not real. So I abandoned it for science, and found the magic again.

Still “anything can happen in the woods.” And yesterday my son was hiking along the Klahhane Ridge in the Olympic National Park, when he came along this fine fellow, whom he photographed with his IPhone. I’ve “worked the image up;” so it is a father-son collaboration.