Forest

The Foss

I finally found myself bsck on more familiar ground this week after my trip to Honduras. I lost track of time recently so I spent the best day of this weekend framing my entry for next week’s Edmonds Art Show (I’ll save my original destination for next weekend). I still felt the need to get out so I headed out to the Foss River valley to explore some more.

First up is a small creek that runs underneath Highway 2 a little bit west of Skykomish. I’ve thought about stopping at this location for a while now but never have. It turns out that it did have some photo worthy opportunities:

Unnamed Creek
Unnamed Creek
From here, I pressed onward and headed up the Foss River Road. Once again, there’s one particular creek that I’ve crossed but never explored. The full sunshine was havoc but once again I found some interesting scenes:

Unnamed Creek - Foss River Valley
Unnamed Creek - Foss River Valley
Unnamed Creek - Foss River Valley
Unnamed Creek - Foss River Valley
Next up was a second visit to a particular spot along the Foss River that I found earlier this winter. By now, the weather was SLOWLY turning with scattered clouds beginning to drift through. Still- bright sunshine was still dominating:

Foss River
Foss River
Foss River
From here, I headed up the valley to see if I could get up to the Evans Lake trailhead. It looked hopeful but about 1 mile shy of the trailhead the road became snow covered and undriveable. At one point, I happened to look up and watched some whispy clouds stream across the ridgeline above me. The clouds were backlit due to the sun and a halo kept appearing:

Sun Halo
From here, I doubled back down the valley and wanted to quickly check out the conditions near Jack’s Pass on the Beckler River Rd. I was bummed to find a MASSIVE windfall blocking one of the side roads off of the pass about 0.5 miles in. A four foot diameter trunk sheered off about 30 feet off of the ground. I’m not so sure this will get cleared this year. That will put a damper on a few of my plans!

2 Days of Gorging – Part 2

The flipside of spending so long at Multnomah Creek was that it threw my schedule right out the window. I ended up having to pare back my very ambitious list of places to visit and made my way to one of the shorter trips on my list…

Little Zigzag Falls

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Full descripton of the area is here on the Portland Hikers website. The trailhead is interesting since it’s located at part of the original road up to Government Camp. There’s an interesting sign which shows an old photo taken from this location. The vegetation wasn’t as leafed out as along the Gorge so things were a bit barren..

Little Zigzag Falls
Little Zigzag Falls
Little Zigzag
Coltsfoot - Little Zigzag

Zigzag River

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Right around Milepost 46, the Zigzag River crosses underneath US Highway 26. The stretch of river downstream of the bridge seemed interesting so I stopped to explore compositions. Unfortunately for me, there was a cabin located alongside one of the banks so I had to exclude it from my compositions. I really enjoyed working with the bright streaks of sunlight on the surface of the churning river..

Zigzag River
Zigzag River
Zigzag River
Zigzag River
Zigzag River

Mount Hood sunset from White River – Take 2

With the day nearing its end, I returned once again to the White River Snowpark hoping for a nice sunset. Through the day, a nice array of clouds seemed to linger around the summit of Mount Hood but, as sunset drew close, they vaporized. The sunset turned out to be a carbon-copy of the previous night’s. Bummer…

Mount Hood sunset along the White River
Sunset along the White River

Siouxon Creek

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The following morning, I began my drive back to the Seattle area but included a sidetrip to Siouxon Creek, which I discovered through my reading of the Portland Hikers Trip Report forum. It’s located in the South Central portion of the Washington Cascades and has the distinction of having a paved road all the way to its remote trailhead. It turns out to be a relic of the former glory days of logging and one forest superintendent’s idea to promote more logging. The trail travels through maturing second growth forest alongside the creek and passes near a few waterfalls.

This was my first visit and so it was all new to me. The creek turned out to be much wider and more open that I had envisioned so photography in bright sunny conditions wasn’t going to be good. I ended up focusing my efforts on the forest itself since it was so magical. The understory is dominated by Oregon Oxalis (which was almost ready to bloom) and full of surprises. If you go, be prepared to encounter a variety of groups because the trail is open to hikers, mountain bikers, and horses..

Oregon Oxalis and Wood Fern - Siouxon Creek Trail
Forest Scene - Siouxon Creek Trail
Mossy Jack
Forest Scene - Siouxon Creek Trail
Forest Scene - Siouxon Creek Trail
Sometimes the results don’t meet the expectations placed beforehand, and this trip fell into that category. How one responds to these challenges can make or break the entire outing. I come away with more valuable experience shooting in extreme light conditions and I hope this will only help me out during my future outings. I know I’ll be back next year (if not sooner!)..

2 days of Gorging – Part 1

I’ve decided that a couple days in May down in the Columbia River Gorge area is a good thing and so I made plans to go down this past week. The actual date was a little earlier than I would have liked due to other committments. Originally, I started doing this in order to photograph the endless field of Arrowleaf Balsamroot that blooms atop Dog Mountain, I’ve since then chosen to expand my itinerary to include other parts of the Gorge as well as neighboring Mount Hood.

At the last minute, I had to alter my plans and drop the Dog Mountain hike due to some highway construction located at the trailhead. I substituted the hike to Indian Point on the Oregon side in its place. The weather was forecasted to be mostly cloudy with a slight chance of thunderstorms for the second half of my time down there but it remained sunny and clear the entire time (horrible conditions for photography!) And now the photos..

Indian Point:

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Not many photos from this first hike. A detailed description can be found on the Portland Hikers website. Overall, a wonderful forested hike to a prominent point overlooking the Gorge. Views north to Mount Adams, and east to Dog Mountain..

Oregon Grape branch nestled at the base of a Douglas Fir. Indian Point Loop Trail
Panorama from Indian Point. Mount Adams in the distant center.
Lone tree growing from the top of Indian Point

Mount Hood sunset from White River:


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First attempt had a small cloudcap over the summit but hardly any color due to the lack of clouds. I hiked about 2/3rds of a mile up the White River looking for a composition and settled on this location. Turns out some better spots were located much closer to the parking lot!..

Sunset on Mount Hood along the White River
Mount Hood cloudcap

Multnomah Creek:

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One of the highlights for me. Multnomah Creek feeds the very famous Multnomah Falls and the portion of the creek upstream of the famous falls contains some AMAZING scenery and a number of waterfalls. I spent nearly 5 hours here and only made it about 3/4 of a mile upstream of the main falls. A full description can be found on the Portland Hikers website. It’s worthy of an entire day!..

View back down over Multnomah Falls
Waterfall just upstream of the famous Multnomah Falls
Multnomah Creek
Multnomah Creek
Multnomah Creek
Middle Dutchman Falls - Multnomah Creek
Upper Dutchman Falls - Multnomah Creek
Ecola Falls - Multnomah Creek
False Solomon Seal - Multnomah Creek
Rock Patterns - Dutchman Tunnel
Rock Patterns - Dutchman Tunnel
Oregon Oxalis
Nature's cathedral ceiling - Multnomah Creek

More to come in Part two!…

North Fork Rapid River

Making lemonade again…

Car troubles foiled my original plans (you should NOT have to replace a factory alternator at 48k miles but I digress) so I settled on exploring the North Fork Rapid River, upstream of the Rapid River Road bridge. Brilliant sunshine ensured horrible conditions for photography but trips like this are still valuable since they answer the question about the worthiness of pursuit in better conditions.

In this case, the answer is most definitely yes! I really like what I found and plan to return once the understory leafs out a bit more and the skies are greyer and overcast (it sounds a bit wrong to be wishing that but those are the optimal conditions!)..

North Fork Rapid River
North Fork Rapid River
North Fork Rapid River
North Fork Rapid River
Reflection pool - North Fork Rapid River
North Fork Rapid River (Portrait View)
North Fork Rapid River (Landscape View)
Bleeding heart along the Rapid River Road
Bleeding heart and alder along the Rapid River Road
This weekend finds me down along the Columbia River Gorge for a whirlwind of hikes and photography so I hope to return will many great photos!..

Foss River

The end of the MLK holiday weekend brought another uncharacteristic sunny winter day. I decided to take advantage of the clear weather and mild temperatures but stay little closer to home. My destination was the Foss River, which is just east and south of the town of Skykomish. I intended to hike the beginning stretch of the Necklace Valley trail but, as I drove along the Foss River Road (FS Road 68), I kept looking down off the road at the Foss River and could tell that there were some interesting stretches of the river.

Photography conditions were a bit challenging because the sun’s position was almost directly up valley of the river. Any photo compositions that included the sky would get blown out real quickly. Anyways, I’m really glad I explored this section of river because I’m anticipating better photos this coming summer and fall!

Foss River
Foss River
Foss River
Foss River
Foss River
Foss River
Foss River
Foss River
Foss River

Swift Creek

This past weekend brought more exploration but closer to home. No doubt photographers in the Pacific Northwest are familiar with the Waterfalls of the Northwest website. While looking through the database of waterfalls, I was drawn into a listing for Rainbow Falls in the vicinity of Mount Baker. It’s described as having a 150 foot drop but also very hard to see due to the deeply incised canyon it empties into. I’ve looked over the topo maps and decided to try and access the falls via the canyon floor by following Rainbow Creek upstream.

The area is accessed by a little used trail- the Swift Creek trail. Long ago, this was the route used to reach Heather Meadows (now the site of the Mount Baker Ski Area) from the Baker Lake region. These days the trail is slowly returning to nature- only the first 2 miles or so receive any maintenance (and its been a few years since the last trail work). It’s a short hike down to Rainbow Creek from the trailhead. The Swift Creek Trail crosses the creek over a very primative log bridge that’s probably not for the faint of heart:

Log Bridge over Rainbow Creek - Swift Creek Trail
From this point, Rainbow Falls is a half mile upstream to the left. In theory. Last fall, I attempted to follow the creek upstream but chose to cross the creek and then follow the far bank. I made it slightly less than halfway before getting cliffed out. This time, I chose to follow the near bank but this also led to the same conclusion- cliffed out. I can say definitively that it’s not possible to reach the falls from the canyon bottom.

With my primary objective out of reach, I decided to cross the creek via the log bridge and head up the Swift Creek trail. This trail is a hidden gem which affords the hike with some quality traits: a lush & diverse forest and solitude. So much solitude that I started to think about bears. The last thing I wanted to do was surprise a bear on the trail so I constantly made noise by banging my trekking poles together.

Following the crossing of Rainbow Creek, the trail heads gently up valley before a brief series of switchbacks that place you into an upper bench of the Swift Creek valley. At this point, some huge cedars are passed alongside the trail:

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Swift Creek Trail
Since the trail has not received much maintenance, there are some areas of blowdown to negotiate. As I drew closer to Swift Creek, I came across a black bear’s track in the mud:

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Two miles in, Swift Creek is reached. It’s unclear to me what this crossing used to be like- a bridge? A cable car? In either case, there’s no good way to cross (especially when the creek runs high such as on this day). Even without continuing further, there’s still a lot to see and appreciate..

Looking upstream - Swift Creek
Looking downstream - Swift Creek
The Cauldron - Swift Creek
Swift Creek
Reminants of an old crossing - Swift Creek

Bagley Creek

Bagley Creek has its origins at Heather Meadows and is fed by the deep snowpack that piles up on the slopes of Table Mountain and Mount Herman. As it leaves Heather Meadows, it drops quickly down the valley to the North Fork Nooksack River below. There are no trails and so this exploration is purely cross-country travel. I’m intrigued by what I saw and plan on investigating further..

Bagley Creek
Bagley Creek
Bagley Creek
All three of these photos were produced using the Essential HDR (High Dynamic Range) software program. The bright snow (there were periods of direct sunlight) marked with the darker areas of the forest really provide the photographer with a challenge for proper exposure. Photos #1 and #3 were processed using just the original RAW image. The second photo had more of a challenge so I used Adobe Camera RAW in Photoshop Elements to produce three versions of this image- +2 exposure, base expsosure, and -2 exposure. The three image were then brought into Essential HDR for tone balancing.

This second image was quite a challenge due to the “blue” cast to the snowbank on the left side of the photo.

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