These lily pads create colorful context for the dead trees that protrude above the surface of the pond. The entire area is known as a muskeg, a marsh or pond made up largely of dead plants in various stages of very slow decomposition. Water from snow and rain collects here, forming permanently waterlogged vegetation and stagnant pools. This image gives us more than a pond – it expresses the very nature of the bogs in an Alaskan rainforest.