Beneath the Stars at Mount Rainier
Two weeks off of my trip to Spray Park, I returned to Mount Rainier hoping to find the wildflower season underway. Having been reminded of the Perseid meteor shower’s arrival, I moved up my visit to incorporate some night time up at Sunrise. I arrived at the Sunrise area close to midnight and found quite the party atmosphere. Lots of people had the same idea about viewing the meteor shower. The Park Service is also repaving several of the pullouts and parking lots so half of the Sunrise Point parking lot was unavailable. I moved on to the Sunrise Visitor Center where there was more parking.
I took a three hour nap and then hiked up the trail towards Sourdough Ridge to set up for the meteor shower. With no moon out, the sky was dark and the stars were out in full force. The meteor shower was a bit underwhelming. They would appear every now & then but I guess I expected more of them and more often. My camera is 3-4 years old and, unfortunately, shows it age when it comes to high ISO photography.
At F4 and 1600 ISO, my exposure times extended out to 3 minutes or so in order to get a decently exposed image. The current slew of cameras now can push ISOs out to 3200 and do so very cleanly so I’m anxious to see what Pentax announces in about a month at the Photokina trade show. Anyways, I made the most of it for about an hour or so before hiking out along the Silver Forest trail to find someplace to set up for sunrise.
Flowers at Sunrise were starting the Daisy / Aster phase. There wasn’t much lupine in bloom except for the perimeter of the timber atolls. The wildflower bloom doesn’t look like it will come close to last year’s show. Towards the end of the trail, I found some spots with stumps & logs to add some foreground interest. For the start of a very hot weather period, this particular morning was cold with a constant light wind.
I had hoped that there might be some valley fog down in the White River valley but that never materialized. Sunrise itself had some nice coloration but otherwise wasn’t special. After the initial warm light gave way to morning sunshine, I hung out to take in the view and listen to the birds which were beginning their days as well.
After hiking back to the parking lot, I decided to hike out along Sourdough Ridge to Frozen Lake. I saw a photo someone had taken at the lake and thought it might offer some possibilities with Mount Rainier in the background. After the initial climb to the spine of Sourdough Ridge, you’re rewarded with some views to the north of Huckleberry Basin as well as Glacier Peak and Mount Baker. An additional short stretch of climbing brings you to the crest of the ridge and then a gradual descent into the basin of Frozen Lake.
I was bitterly disappointed with the lake. Apparently the lake is now a “water supply” resource and so no one is allowed within 15-20 feet of the lake’s shoreline (reinforced with a wire fence all around its perimeter). Bummer. With no photo opportunities at the lake, I reassessed my plans and decided to continue along the trail up to First Burroughs Mountain. The area around Frozen Lake is interesting since it is the intersection of several backcountry trails. The Wonderland Trail crosses paths here and drops into Berkeley Park to the north.
I made my way up the trail towards Burroughs and crossed one short snowfield which had a small ledge cut into it. After that, another longer snowfield continued out of sight. Given the early morning and my lack of true hiking boots, I decided not to continue. Returning to my truck, I packed up and headed over to Chinook Pass.
Conditions at Chinook Pass were disappointing. Any “peak” bloom is still a week away (if at all!). It’ a far cry from last year, for sure. After surveying Tipsoo Lake, I joined the Naches Peak Loop trail, starting on the backside of Naches Peak and hiking out towards the tarn. To reinforce the point, Avalanche Lillies are still in bloom scattered along the trail. Just like at Sunrise, it’s a banner year for Indian Paintbrush but not much else. Bugs, on the other hand, seemed to be out in force along the loop trail and at the tarn.
Given the conditions I saw, I decided to cut my plans short and not pursue sunset from the Paradise area. Hopefully the next week will bring about the conditions necessary for final blooms!
Side note: this past week I finally upgraded my photo processing to Adobe’s CS5. It’s been a bit of a slow learning curve to adapt my previous workflow to the desired workflow within CS5 but the end result is pretty impressive. I’ve just scratched the surface with it but I’m very glad I bit the bullet for the upgrade.
