This photo pair was taken from the air, over the Outer Range, looking east towards where a small unnamed creek sweeps in from the left (N) to join Big Cr. (the larger drainage in the foreground) with the Teklanika R. visible in the background. Although the air is a little smoky in the 2005 photo, you can see an increase in density of white spruce and "in-filling" of white spruce trees into what was formerly more open shrub vegetation (composed of dwarf birch and willows) during the interval between the photographs. Spruce foliage is much darker than the reddish and light green deciduous dwarf birch and willow shrubs, providing a sharp visual contrast and aiding in detecting these vegetation changes.