Just ran across this thread and had to add to it.
Alligator juniper is very common around where I live in Arizona's Prescott National Forest. From what I've been able to observe the blue needle foliage is juvenile form. Mature foliage is scale and a sea-green color. As others have noted, these can be very impressive trees.
Here is my brother and my dog in front of a particularly beautiful specimen - if only it were three feet tall...
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You can see a much younger AJ to the left with contrasting blueish needles.
Here's another big AJ that looks like something out of an HP Lovecraft novel...
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Unlike the previous pics, this next one IS three feet tall...
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All the decaying wood chunks around the juniper are from a ponderosa pine that fell on the juniper who knows how many decades ago and gave it that intense bend.
Here is from the other side, interesting deadwood...
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Hope you don't mind me reviving this thread.