This goes to prove that you have to be able to work fast at sunrise and sunset. I was already a few minutes late arriving at my location. Ten minutes after arriving, it was faded and the fog rose up to greet me and block my view. Early bird gets the worm!…
My sunrise days are just about over until fall as sunrise times creep earlier and earlier (I’m not much of morning person!). Last week, we had a cloud free sunrise but really wonderful valley fog at just the right elevation to sift in and out of trees in the Snohomish River valley…
Here are a few photos that I took from sunrise on this past Friday morning..
This past week brought us a newscaster’s dream- Snowmageddon! Before that, however, was a week in which the Puget Sound was treated to a number of days with brilliant sunrises and sunsets. From here in Everett, the potential for great vantages of the Cascade mountains with the Snohomish River valley in the foreground exist but come with challenges. These views from publicly accessible locations are very limited; those spots that remain usually have some sort of constraints in the form of powerlines or street light poles.
The best vantage I could come up with was just above I-5 along Broadway Avenue in the vicinity of Evergreen Cemetery. Here, the problem are the light poles along I-5. Here are a collection of shots, almost all from this location. Some of the wider shots do have the poles in them. Not much you can do about that!
I had hoped for some of the typical morning valley fog that usually occurs in the Snohomish River valley to add to the interest. The fog did show up on the second morning but was waaaaay thicker than I would have wanted. It almost obscured the mountains!
I was just about home on Friday evening when it looked like sunset might get interesting. I decided to just go home instead of heading to a nearby park in anticipation of sunset. Boy- that was the WRONG move! The sunset was so mind blowing that it was a trending topic on Twitter that evening. I quickly realized the error of my decision so I tried to snap a couple shots from my back..
As widely reported, vast portions of Western Washington experienced record and near record level flooding during the past week. This marks the third major flood event in as many years. All rivers have crested and begun to recede back into their banks which now afford the opportunity to check out the flooding.
Here are some photos up and down the Snohomish & Snoqualmie River valleys. First up, a solitary tree surrounded by the temporary lake:
Further up Old Snohomish-Monroe Road is the road closure just south of French Creek:
Further south and directly alongside the Snohomish River, a log deposited by the high flows lies on Shorts School Road..
Once you know what to look for, it’s easy to get an idea of how high the flood waters were. Indications such as mud on trees and debris that gets deposited unnaturally are clear signs:
Further up valley and just north of the town of Duvall, waters from the Snoqualmie River have filled the side fields up creating vast seas. Currently there’s 4 feet of water in this field:
The mile-wide valley could not be crossed in Duvall due to flood damage to the road so I doubled around the north side to go look at High Bridge Road. This photo shows Crescent Lake Road as it descends into the flood waters. The line of debris across the road in the middle of the photo indicates the level of flood waters:
Finally, a view across the Snoqualmie River valley from high atop High Bridge Road:
