Steve Cole Photography

Pacific Northwest Landscape / Nature Photography

Landscape

Top Ten of 2010

Dec 12

My laptop is finally repaired so it’s time to look back at 2010 and pick out my ten favorite photos from the year. Ok, well, make that ten PLUS 2 because it’s always hard to limit it to just ten! I don’t know how many photos I’ve taken during the last 12 months but about 450 photos have found their way here onto my blog. From that, I chose about 100 photos to add to the galleries of my website. To me, that means it was a pretty good year!

Looking at the photos I’ve selected for this year in review, water seemed to be a popular subject of mine. The weather this summer wasn’t very good (as evidenced by the wildflower season at Mount Rainier National Park) so a number of my trips were confined to the streams and waterfalls in the forests. And so……the top ten in no particular order:

1.) “Nooksack Falls in Summer- North Fork Nooksack River Valley”

A definite favorite since I finally achieved a shot I had previously visualized. I had been looking for a different view of the falls and a higher, downward perspective seemed to fit the bill. The problem is that there isn’t a natural high viewpoint so I used a 6′ ladder to get this perspective.

More photos from this trip can be found in my blog post here.

2.) “Wells Creek Falls – Wells Creek Valley”

I was very happy to get this shot given the conditions at the time. The falls are only a ¼ mile upstream of the road but it does require at least one ford of the creek to reach this unencumbered view of the falls. The combination of a steady rain and downspray from the falls added to the challenge of getting this shot.

More photos from this trip can be found in my blog post here.

3.) “Winter’s Glow – Mount Shuksan”

After an afternoon on the slopes at the Mount Baker Ski Area, I snowshoed up to Artist Point in hopes of a nice sunset. Although I didn’t get a nice sunset for Mount Baker, I did get some great alpenglow off of Mount Shuksan. Definitely reminds me of the many photos of the rugged Alaskan mountains.

More photos from this trip can be found in my blog post here.

4.) “Standouts – Mount Baker Ski Area”

Taken on another day up at the ski area, I remember looking across at Hemispheres and seeing this small grove of trees and how the sun was casting shadows off of the surrounding slopes. I used my zoom lens at 300mm to isolate the trees in the lower right corner and eliminate some other trees in the vicinity.

More photos from this trip can be found in my blog post here.

5.) “Paradise River – Mount Rainier National Park”

Perhaps a stereotypical shot from the Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park but I was happy to finally get a nice photo with Pink Monkeyflower blooms. This was taken towards the end of my visit to Mazama Ridge this summer during the peak of wildflower season. I like how I was able to include the stream and the cascades in the background into this composition.

More photos from this trip can be found in my blog post here.

6.) “Right Place, Right Time – Mount Rainier National Park”

By far, my most memorable outing of the year. A friend joined me on a hike into Spray Park in the NW corner of Mount Rainier National Park. The entire day had active weather and upon our arrival in Spray Park, the clouds thickened and socked us in. I had just accepted the fact that there would be no sunset when I noticed a faint patch of blue sky above us. In no more than 5 minutes, conditions changed from whiteout to clear skies at the height of sunset’s colors. Having this amazing scene all to ourselves was the icing on the cake.

More photos from this trip can be found in my blog post here.

7.) “Towards the Light – Zigzag River Valley”

Taken during my May visit to the Columbia River Gorge area, I stopped at the bridge over the Zigzag River along Highway 26 on the way to Mount Hood. It was a beautiful stretch of river and the late afternoon sun was shinning through the forest. I noticed one beam of light that was beginning to shine on one boulder out in the river. This is just another example of using a telephoto zoom to isolate a portion of the landscape. This photo reminds me of something drifting helplessly in a stormy sea.

More photos from this trip can be found in my blog post here.

8.) “Through the Forest – North Fork Nooksack River Valley”

I spent several weekends exploring new parts of the North Fork Nooksack River valley. This photo of Bagley Creek probably wouldn’t have happened if not for the inability to reach my primary objective this particular day. After being denied upstream travel, I decided to walk downstream and eventually came across this view. The color contrast between the rock and the green of the forest stand out for me as well as the detail in the rock formations.

More photos from this trip can be found in my blog post here.

9.) “Summertime on Bagley Creek – North Fork Nooksack River Valley”

Believe it or not, this scene is only about 1/4 mile downstream of photo #8. This was shot the week before photo #8 when I first tried to access a particular location. It’s a very peaceful scene to me and I love how the creek just seems to go on to infinity.

More photos from this trip can be found in my blog post here.

10.) “Day’s End – Mount Baker Wilderness”

This shot was taken from a favorite location of mine- Cougar Divide on the north side of Mount Baker. I was hopeful for a nice fall sunset this day due to active clouds throughout the day. We reached my favorite spot on the ridge right about the transition from afternoon light to the golden hour. The clouds provided some dramatic interest and the late afternoon sun accentuated the textures of the snow. I was really happy with the processing and how this photo turned out.

More photos from this trip can be found in my blog post here.

Ok, here are two bonus photos!

11.) “Storm Clouds – Mount Baker Wilderness”

This photo was taken during the same session as photo #10. It can be easy to focus your attention in one direction but you should always look around! This photo wouldn’t exist without that thinking. As I looked around, I took note of the wall of clouds and how they were being reflected in the small tarn below me.

More photos from this trip can be found in my blog post here.

12.) “Road No More – North Fork Skykomish River Valley”

Floods back in 2006 damaged a half-mile stretch of the Index-Galena Road in Central Cascades. Today,a new side channel of the North Fork Skykomish River flows along the old road’s alignment but portions of the road still lie within the new channel. I was intrigued by this small piece of asphalt lying in the moving water. Once again, I used my telephoto to isolate the piece of asphalt.

More photos from this trip can be found in my blog post here.

Wells Creek one last time

Nov 02

Halloween is the last day that Wells Creek Road is accessible beyond Nooksack Falls until the following July 1st. I had to head into Bellingham to purchase my Mount Baker season pass so I decided to head up Wells Creek one last time this season. Fall color has been making a bit of an appearance in the lowlands so I was a little hopeful that I might see some of that up in the mountains.

Most leaves have dropped so the remaining leaves that were in fall color didn’t quite have the same impact or appeal. I continued onward back to Wells Creek Falls. My last visit was on a very rainy day in July. Battling both the rain and downspray from the falls, the photography was tough going. Today, however, was dry and the creek was running just a tad lower making the crossing a little easier.

I hiked back to my original vantage point and then continued around the corner into the waterfall’s surrounding bowl. Getting closer did provide the best view of the falls but also brought me even closer to the downspray. These conditions require some patience and thinking in order to obtain a good photo. Here’s my procedure:

• Before beginning, make sure you have some items handy: several microfiber cloths (for lens cleaning & drying), a hand towel, and perhaps a clear ziploc type bag. In addition, I find it helpful if the tripod ball head has 360 degree markings on it.
• The first step is to determine exposure. To save myself some lens cleaning, I put the ziploc bag over my lens and then tried some test exposures. At this point, I just want to get into the ball park and I’m not worried about focus. Once I know what the exposure should be, I switch my camera mode to Manual and dial in the proper f-stop and shutter speed.
• Now it’s time for focus. Basically, the lens will get wet with spray so be quick with determining your focus point and focusing. Once you have focus, either stay away from the focus button (I disable shutter button focus lock on my camera) or switch to manual focus.
• Since the lens is getting spray on it, you might as well as determine your composition. Once I had my composition set, I noted where the tic mark on the ball head was located (one notch before 315, etc..).
• Next, I swung the camera around so that the lens was not directly in the spray. I put the lens hood on and then drape my hand towel over the camera. This helps further shield the lens as I wipe it dry and let the rest of the moisture evaporate.
• Now that the front of the lens is dry and clear, I cover the front with the hand towel (the lens hood keeps the towel from slapping against the front of the lens) and then rotate the camera back around. Since I noted which tick mark the camera was at when I composed the shot, I know exactly where to point it WITHOUT exposing the lens to the spray.
• I set my camera to a 2 second timer so all that’s left is to click the shutter and then remove the towel a split second before the shutter opens. It takes a little time to get into the rhythm of things but it definitely helps you get the best photo with the least amount of annoying water droplets!

My first vantage point was so close that I knew I needed a short shutter speed. I normally like to shoot at ISO 100 but that would have been far too long of a shutter speed (creating too many water droplets). For this shot, I increased my ISO to 400 which brought my shutter speed down to 0.3 seconds:

After a taking a few variations to make sure I got the shot, I moved back to my original vantage point from back in July to take some more shots. Despite being further downstream, I still collected water drops on the lens so I repeated the process I described. I experimented with both landscape and portrait versions:

The afternoon was getting long so I packed up and headed back to my truck. I wanted to get a better look at the slopes of Barometer Ridge since they were flocked with fresh snow. A mile or so beyond the bridge over Sholes Creek is an open roadside with a nice view of Barometer Ridge. The sun was out and clouds were drifting upwards from the valley floor…

The summit of Mount Baker was almost- but not quite visible. I enjoyed the stillness and the surroundings but soon it was time to head home. I tried stopping by a waterfall on the way out but found it unsafe all by myself. Not a ton of photos but a good outing with my new Pentax K-5.

Which reminds me…..I’ll be out of town for the next week. I’m headed to attend the Banff Mountain Festival where one of my photos will be on display! I’ll be spending a couple of days in the Banff area so I’m hoping for some good photos!

Squire Creek Pass

Oct 19

This spot has been on my list for awhile now. The sunny weekend just seemed to be the perfect reason for finally making a visit. Well, that and the new delivery of my Pentax K-5 SLR! After trying to learn all the menus and settings, it was time to try it out. The pass is somewhat unique in that two trails provide two very different hiking experiences. Most people hike up the front side using the Squire Creek valley but a shorter (albeit more grueling) hike is using the Eight Mile trail which starts in the Clear Creek valley. A massive landslide in 2002 added an additional 3 miles roundtrip so the Eight Mile Trail seems like a more direct route in. It’s direct, all right….

On paper it’s only 2.2 miles and 2,200 feet to the pass. Everything starts out mellow as the trail follows an old logging road. The trail enters the Boulder River Wilderness at about 0.4 miles and enters a forest with MASSIVE Western Red Cedars. The diameter of trees is most impressive. This tree is one of the largest I’ve seen anywhere:

The trail steadily climbs up & over roots and rocks arriving at Three O’ Clock Rock at about 0.6 miles. The main attraction here is the large exfoliation dome that offers rock climbers several routes to attempt. This spot also offers up some of the first views of the area (including Whitechuck Mountain down the Clear Creek valley). There were still a few small signs of fall color left so we soaked in the views before moving along. From here, the trail really gets ugly. More roots, more rocks, and now add mud into the equation.

Plodding along, the mirage of more & more blue sky ahead keeps you going. At about 1.5 miles, you reach the edge of the subalpine meadows that stretches out for the remaining distance up to the pass. The area is littered with large exposed rock slabs, often with water running over them. Splendid for a summer outing but a bit more precarious when the temperatures are much lower. In the shade, the water turns into ice. After a series of small ups & downs, you reach Squire Creek Pass- an immense bench of solid rock.

To the west lies the east face of Three Fingers, the crown jewel of this hike. To the northwest, a rarely seen side of Whitehorse Mountain. Behind you to the east, a better view of Whitehorse Mountain as well as the upper portion of Glacier Peak. A forested knoll extends to the north and a series of parkland benches rises to the south, completing the view.

Fall color was hanging on primarily in the form of huckleberry leaves. Due to the sporadic nature, I found it hard to find a good composition which included the better looking spots of color. Most impressive is the lookout on top of one of the Three Fingers, a tiny speck of white compared to the massive east face.

After eating some lunch, we climbed southward although I wasn’t feeling that well. We came across a couple nice sized tarns which did offer a few reflection possibilities. Fall days are short so it was soon time to turn around and head back. We made it up to the pass in about 3 hours and only took 2 hours on the way down (despite the constant punishment your joints take).

Everyone should probably make it up there at least once to enjoy the views in silence and solitude. As for the new Pentax SLR, I need to go on a few more outings to give more of a review. Ergonomics are great but its operation is different, especially coming from their K10d. Photo quality seems pretty good, though!

Blue Lake and Golden Larches

Oct 14

Fall is coming to a close and without much fanfare. The only good fall color this year has been up high and and on the east side of the Cascades. I’ve wanted to check out the larch fall colors since my premature visit two years ago to Maple Pass. I got a bit more excited when I learned that weather forecasts were calling for the first low snow levels of the season. I hoped I could combine the yellow larches, the blue of Blue Lake, and the white of fresh snow.

Off I went to the Blue Lake trailhead near Washington Pass. Skies were clearing and the air was quite crisp. I had hoped that there might be 1-2” of fresh snow but what greeted me was nothing more than a barely a trace at the trailhead. Up higher, the amount was still little more than a trace but more widespread. Most larches still had needles but were past prime color and even starting to shed needles.

There’s a small creek near the turnoff for the climbers path up to Liberty Bell & Early Winter Spires and luckily it had some small drops & ice formations to take advantage of:

After my brief stop, I hiked the remaining half mile or so to Blue Lake. This stretch of trail is now somewhat sketchy since the water on the trail has frozen and probably won’t thaw out before winter finally arrives. It’s a short stretch so in little time I arrived at Blue Lake. After crossing the outlet, way trails scatter in every direction. I followed the shoreline for a while before deciding to gain the crest of a small cliff for a higher vantage.

The wind kicked up a bit and clouds began to drift over the surrounding ridges. Tucked away just west of Blue Lake are a couple small tarns. Scenic in their own right but I had difficulty getting some nice compositions. Before I ended my day at the lake I made my way down to the shoreline to do some exploring:

I didn’t see a single person until I started my hike out which was pretty nice, especially for a popular location such as this. As I drove home, I did quickly stop off at one location along the North Cascades Highway which had a nice display of fall color. This was somewhat of an oddity since most of the fall color I observed were solitary trees scattered throughout the forest.

Mountain Loop Highway

Oct 06

I’ve made several trips to the Darrington area during the last month so I felt like looking for fall color along the Mountain Loop Highway between Barlow Pass and the Whitechuck River. Fall colors continue to be AWOL. Most maples are losing their leaves before they get to change their color. Along the rivers, the vine maples have dropped most of their leaves.

The fall color that I’ve heard about has been in the higher elevations and primarily huckleberry and mountain ash. My deepest foray into the mountains brought me up to the 4,000′ level in the Dan Creek watershed and, to my surprise, I didn’t find any fall color there as well! It’s truly been a fall to forget for fall color.

Some friends had told me about a small little waterfall in the Verlot vicinity so I made a quick stop to check it out:

After that, I continued east and then headed up towards the Headlee Pass trailhead since there’s a nice valley view just before reaching the trailhead. In the past, the mountain ash has provided fall color but not this year (I’m beginning to sound like a broken record!). What WAS cool were some low clouds drifting through the valley and the forested slopes. I spent a little bit of time watching and trying various compositions:

Afterwards, I went over Barlow Pass and stopped at spot that finally had some fall color. In my previous drives through this area, I’ve noticed the unusual red rocks & boulders here in the South Fork Sauk River so it was nice to finally stop and check it out.

Just before reaching the confluence with the Whitechuck River, I made a quick sidetrip to check out the North Fork Sauk River Falls:

Closer to the Whitechuck River, some small vine maples in the forest caught my eye:

I was really hoping to get up high to get some fall color but even up high in the Dan Creek drainage yielded nothing. Low clouds even denied me of some fine views of Whitechuck Mountain. It was getting late so I turned around and headed home. On the way out, I stopped (inadvertently!) at the same spot along the South Fork Sauk River and shot a few more photos of the red rock & fall color.

It’s been difficult deciding on where to go these past few weekends. I’m hoping to have better luck this weekend.

It is fall..

Sep 27

…but it’s not very obvious. At least not in the North Cascades. After spending the day bouncing around the North Fork Nooksack River valley, I suspect that fall colors will be disappointing this year. Labor Day weekend was my last outing so I was eager to get out again. I decided to attempt to revisit a section of Ruth Creek with a friend in order to access some more difficult terrain that I know would yield some great photos. Forecasts were leaning towards nice sunny weather but I decided to give it a go.

On the way, we stopped off to check fall color conditions on Church Mountain:

The forecasted 63% cloud cover was more like 0-10%. The stretch of Ruth Creek proved to be quite formidable and our attempts to enter it’s guarded treasures were futile. Despite wearing chest waders, I only managed a few photos from here:

Defeat came quick but there was still a fair amount of day left. We poked around another forest service road before ending up at Artist Point with hundreds of other tourists. It was tough being there and watching people pick wildflowers and wander wherever they chose to.

A storm front was coming in (witnessed by the very strong winds at Artist Point) so we both thought there might be a chance for a striking sunset. I decided we should head to Cougar Divide to try our luck. We made haste to the trailhead and arrived about an hour before sunset. About a half hour later, we had arrived at the viewpoint that I like to shoot from.

Sunset started wonderfully with a cloudcap and other clouds swirling around Mount Baker. To the east, Mount Shuksan’s summit pyramid was already firmly in the grip of cloud cover. Back down the Nooksack Valley a cloud bank was building up, adding to the interest. I promised my friend solitude at this location but we ended up running into 7 others at the viewpoint! Most left upon our arrival and, after a few minutes, we had the place to ourselves.

Just prior to the point of brilliant pinks and peak sunset colors, it all shut off like a light switch. I suspect the sun dipped behind a cloud bank along the horizon which shut us out. This seemed to be confirmed by looking north towards Canada where we could see the pink colors that were eluding us!

I spent a few more minutes after sunset taking some shots before we made our way out. The moon was rising to the east but I couldn’t capture any decent shots. The day was done and all that was left was the long drive back home. That, and replacing the flat I got just prior to crossing the Wells Creek bridge. I really hope that the fall colors arrive!

Deep at Bagley Creek

Sep 07

View Larger Map in New Window

Labor Day marks the traditional end of summer but our weather must be “gifted” since signs of fall have been noticeable for as week or two. Weekend forecasts had been called for gray and showery conditions so a return trip to Bagley Creek with a friend was penciled in. My first visit was a quick one a couple weeks ago but the scenery was stunning and seemed to have potential for even more. During that first visit, it looked like there were some drops and waterfalls just out of sight so some more thorough exploration was in order.

On the way to Bagley Creek, I decided to visit a location I discovered in an old out-of-print book. The location is a rock outcrop which contains fossilized imprints of plant leafs. I’ve never heard of something like this in the Cascades and the ease of access makes it pretty incredible. Through the years, I suspect that most of the quality examples (such as what was in the book’s photo) have been taken home by careless individuals. In order to preserve what remains, I’m electing NOT to reveal its location and simply share some photos.

It was very cool to see and touch some of the history of the Cascades. We cut our time short and made our way to Bagley Creek. I wanted to check out two things- the stretch of creek immediately upstream of a forest service road & then a second stretch of the creek further upstream which had a nice sized waterfall. Before wading upstream, we checked out the scene just below the bridge:

Looking upstream from the bridge, one can make out a nice 6′ drop so it was time to wade upstream to investigate it further. As it turns out, a nice amphitheater contains the drop. Just below the drop, however, a plunge pool at least 6′ deep prevented any further travels. After a few more photos, I headed back to the bridge to move on to the second location.

The second location is basically just around the corner. Accessed off of a decommissioned logging road, the forest is dense and makes travel difficult. The waterfall proved elusive yet again due to steep sidewalls and deep waters. We were there and had more time so we followed the old road which paralleled the creek downstream.

We would walk down 50 feet, then pop over to the water’s edge to survey the scene. Our first location provided some really interesting rock formations:

The next location downstream had one of the deepest plunge pools I’ve seen. I believe this location is roughly where Razor Hone Creek joins Bagley Creek. I managed to get some nice photos despite the sun’s off and on appearances.

We reached one of the bridges used as part of the winter cross country ski trails and then turned around. We now know that this area is accessible during the winter so it might be on the list of places to visit this coming winter!

I’ll be taking a break for the next two weeks to attend to some other commitments so look for a new post later this month!

Showtime at Mazama

Aug 23

Mazama Ridge is in prime wildflower conditions. I had loftier goals for this day but the weather forecast didn’t come close to materializing. Though dry, the mountain was wrapped in clouds the entire day with only two brief windows of visibility. On my way to Mazama Ridge, I made a quick stop at Silver Falls along the Ohanapecosh River:

I arrived at the Reflection Lakes area and geared up. A bit of a breeze made conditions feel more like fall than summertime and the clouds were persistent at about 5,300 feet. The damaged log footbridge at the base of the climb up to Faraway Rock washed downstream so it’s actually safer to cross now. Flowers were mostly spent around the Reflection Lakes and up to Faraway Rock.

North of the rock, the wildflowers come into prime. As many people have predicted & discussed, the wildflowers this year are “normal” at best and nowhere near the show or density of last year. Still, I was pleasantly surprised at what I discovered. Flowers along the ridge were at peak conditions and hadn’t begun to degrade. In fact, the upper third of the ridge still had some flowers coming up. This is definitely the week to visit & experience.

I did make the brief side trip down to the junction with the Skyline Trail and the creek that flows from Sluiskin Falls. The flowers here are also glorious with a lot of valerian in bloom. Along the creek, pink monkeyflower can be found in pockets.

On my way back to Reflection Lakes, I hoped that the clouds might clear out but they did not. I did come across a black bear working the margins of one of the meadows.

After that, I was a bit more vocal on my solo hike out. I stopped once again at Faraway Rock since sunset was only minutes away. There was no direct sunset light but it was being reflected off of the various clouds which made for some interest. The full moon had also risen a fair amount into the sky which created some photo opportunities with the east end of the Tatoosh Range.

Unbelievably, as I got ready and packed up my camera for the final hike out, a red fox came trotting up the trail right next to me and proceeded to examine the area around me. I was stunned to see this and thought about dragging out my DSLR for a second. I figured it would be gone by the time I was ready to shoot so I grabbed my point & shoot instead. I only snapped a few quick stills before I switched to shooting video which I have also posted below. I’d recommend watching the video. So much cooler than the photo!

Red Fox – Mount Rainier National Park from Steve Cole on Vimeo.

The day wasn’t what I had hoped for but was still filled with several memorable moments!

Beneath the Stars at Mount Rainier

Aug 15

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.

It is August, isn’t it?

Aug 08

It’s the end of the first week of August and we’re still waiting for the wildflower blooms at Mount Rainier. The forecast of clouds and rain negated any hopes of grand views or sunsets so it was back into the deep forests of the North Cascades. I originally thought about revisiting some locations in the Highway 2 corridor but I remembered that there were a number of “firsts” for me to still visit up in the North Fork Nooksack River valley.

I came across another website that’s devoted to Pacific Northwest waterfalls and it clued me in on a few waterfalls along Twin Lakes Rd as well as an intriguing waterfall along Wells Creek Rd. Back around July 4th, I had made a visit to the Wells Creek area and attempted to photograph Wells Creek Falls. I was thwarted by thick huckleberry brush and limited views from above but I was determined to make it upstream this time thanks to a pair of waders.

The first stop was the new waterfall located a couple miles upstream of the Wells Creek / North Fork Nooksack River confluence. It is roadside accessible but the actual location is a bit dangerous due to the steep drops into the creek. The biggest appeal to this waterfall was a monolithic rock which rises 10-12 feet above the creek immediately below the falls. On this day, the water levels were pretty high so the rock was submerged for the most part. The weather definitely provided a feeling of fall with the low clouds, steady rain, and the distressed colors of the huckleberries in front of me.

These photos of the waterfall are unfortunately soft due to an accident in which the Manual Focus / Auto Focus switch had changed to manual focus while the camera was in my backpack and I didn’t catch the mistake. No matter- I plan on returning later in the fall when levels are lower. From here, it’s just another couple miles up the road to Wells Creek Falls. I slipped on my waders and proceeded up left (or north) bank. About halfway up, my friend & I decided to cross the creek at a short pool stretch of the creek. At its deepest point, the creek was about knee deep but still had a fair amount of force behind it.

It turned out that this was the only fording of the creek required to reach the falls. We arrived at the entrance to the waterfall’s amphitheater and were greeted with a driving rain AND wind driven spray from the waterfall itself. This was going to be a challenge to photograph. I found a spot next to the creek and set up. Any time the lens was exposed, it would immediately accumulate water drops. I lucked out and got the exposure combination correct on the first try (0.5s @ F16) but I had to reset everything a couple times in order to set my circular polarizer correctly and make sure the camera was level.

Each time, I had to swing the camera around 180 degrees, wipe off the lens, cover the camera and wait for the residue moisture on the lens evaporate. When ready, I kept the camera covered and swung it around to set up for the shot. I would press the shutter to activate the 2 second timer and wait for the absolute last second in order to remove the cover. This worked well enough to minimize the effect of water droplets in my finished photos.

We ended up spending a fair amount of time at the falls and were well on our way to becoming waterlogged. This day really felt more like October than August! Our next stop was a lovely two part waterfall along Twin Lakes Rd which is unofficially named Gold Run Falls. At the very top is a 100 foot drop over a series of angled ledges (it reminded me of a pachinko machine so I dubbed it Pachinko Falls). Below this, the creek travels steeply down some angled rock formations.

Steady rain made things miserable. We had good success photographing the lower portion but the main drop proved to be problematic due to the near vertical angle required to compose the shot. I managed to take one water drop plagued shot before beating a quick retreat back to the truck.

It was later afternoon and we were pretty much water logged. I decided to make one more stop in the valley and visited the lower stretch of Bagley Creek where it meets the valley floor. There are supposed to be some nice waterfalls in this area so we headed that way. We initially missed a turnoff and stopped at a spot along Bagley Creek just upstream of it’s confluence with the NF Nooksack River. This spot is downstream of the waterfalls but it proved to be a beautiful stretch of creek with what looked to be its own waterfall drop in the distance.

It was late in the day so we didn’t have time to explore the upstream section of this stretch. We did, however, retrace our route and followed the correct turnoff to reach the location of the waterfalls. The dense forest and steep slopes prevented us from pursuing things fully but there was indeed a very nice stretch of drops and waterfalls. We’ll need to return a later date!

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