splitrock lighthouse

When most people think of Minnesota, they probably imagine fields, lakes, farms, and snow but when you get up north of Duluth and the Lake Superior coast you get small mountains, amazing streams and waterfalls and a rocky coastline.  Back when I lived in MN, the state government shutdown for a while so I took that opportunity to head up to Lake Superior and see some of the state parks without people in them (parks were shutdown too).  I got to Splitrock Lighthouse late in the afternoon and spend the night perched out on the rocks to get this other photo of it too at night silhouetting the stars :)

find it here:  47°11’59” N;  91°22’12” W

the fog rolls in

This was my first trip to Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.  I had always wanted to visit but never made the time and never thought I’d ever live here.  But a great opportunity came up at Target and I was offered a position based out of Portland, OR so we were here in late September for the first time trying to get familiar with the city and find places to live.  It has been about a year since then, and living in the PNW has been nothign short of amazing!

On this trip, we took a couple days to do some travel to Mt. St. Helens then down the coast through Astoria to arrive at Ecola State Park and this great view overlooking Cannon Beach just as the sunset.

I just visited this location again over the past weekend which prompted me to pull this photo out from the archive to process and post.  It was really foggy this weekend, some neat photos from in the surrounding rain forest are stil to come.

Find it here:  45°55’11”;   N 123°58’31” W

the hidden falls

well, it’s not quite so secret since these falls are clearly marked on the map as Wolf Creek Falls in Banning State Park, MN.  When heading out here, I never expected these falls to have this great overhang covered with moss and lichen.  I had to get way up under here to get this neat angle.

This was also my first trip trying out my new Spot locator device.  You can read about it at the link if you haven’t seen these before and I will say I was really happy with it.  Small, and never got in the way clipped to my belt, it kept an accurate track of where I was which I posted a “live” map now on my website header.  Pretty cool!

Find it here:  46°8’47” N;  92°51’39” W

not yet swept away

Taken just below Wolf Creek Falls in Banning State Park, MN.  It’s a neat little park roughly 90 mi north of Minneapolis.  Just a 1/2mi walk to the creek and falls, it feels very secluded, with growth right up to and over the water.  While up on the falls, I noticed these yellow flowers just down stream so I made my way down there quickly to capture them before they got swept down the creek.

Find it here:  46°8’48” N;  92°51’40” W

By the way, here is a picture I took while getting this shot: