During summer, it is easy to overlook beech trees.
But this time of year, when leaves are gone from mature beech and almost all other deciduous trees, the tan leaves of young beech trees give us some much-appreciated winter color.
Interlochen campers tell me that the trunks of beech trees remind them of elephant legs.
The smooth grey bark is thin, but not particularly insulating.
Beech trees grow in the eastern United States but they peter out just west of Lake Michigan.
Botanists speculate that away from the tempered lake climate, beech bark does not offer enough protection for winter survival.