Eagle Creek in a Heavy Rainfall

Well we are clearly into the rainy season in the Pacific Northwest.  What I had been able to trail run just a few days earlier was nearly impassible on this day.  Small trickling streams crossing the trail were transformed into raging, waist deep, scary, fast moving flows.  Here’s a photo from the same place with much less water.

Find it here:  45°37’22” N;  121°53’42” W

blue hour at wasilla lake

This is one of a bunch of new processed photos I’ve been meaning to post but you know, life get’s in the way :)

I’m fortunate in that my “real” job takes me to some interesting places even on some occassions to Anchorage, Alaska.  During this trip, it was close to the summer solstice and the sun goes just below the horizon for a few hours then comes back up.  This made for an incredibly long and beautiful blue hour.  I was in Wasilla for the day and took a few side detours on my back to Anchorage that night with the first stop at the shore of Wasilla Lake to capture the Chugach mountain range behind it.

find it here: 61°34’52” N;  149°25’40” W

desolation

I started noticing this stand of trees a couple months ago in the Columbia River Gorge near Horsetail Falls.  Ever since then they’ve looked dead, desolate, and dark.  I wonder what they’ll look like in the spring…

find it here:  45°35’28” N;   122°3’53” W

behind the weeping wall

It was a perfectly dry day, yet water was streaming out of the face of this rock wall in Zion National Park.  We stopped here just for a few hours while driving from California to Minneapolis.  It was way too rushed as we also stopped at Bryce Canyon National Park (at sunset) and drive to Moab, UT in the same day. I think I was hallucinating by the time we got there.

I’m looking forward to getting back to Zion next fall when I’m going to spend two weeks driving around the desert southwest camping on my Jeep!

find it here:  37°16’11” N;  112°56’19” W

creature in the gorge

Deep within Oneonta Gorge when the water was low I came across this rock which almost looked like some prehistoric creature with just it’s back breaking the surface of the water.  This gorge goes back surprisingly far and if you get all the way to the end (requires swimming even when the water is low) you’ll find an amazing waterfall!

find it here:  45°35’11” N;  122°4’26” W

punchbowl falls

This is another one of those places in the Columbia River Gorge that makes it so amazing.   Punchbowl Falls is just an easy couple mile hike in from the trailhead.  The falls come spilling out into this “bowl” which is flanked by these really neat granite walls covered with ferns, moss, etc.  At times, it can be quite busy here by not many people walk out into the water (cold most of the year) or if you just wait a bit, eventually you’ll have a people free moment to get a nice photo.  There are several waterfalls along this trail and if you keep going, about mile 6 is a 250ft waterfall with a tunnel going right behind it halfway to the top!

find it here:  45°37’22” N;   121°53’42” W

streaming by

Taylors Falls, MN.  This is a neat little park on the St. Croix river along the Minnesota/Wisconsin border with rock formations you don’t find anywhere else in the area.  It almost reminds me of some parts of the Columbia River Gorge.  There are sharp craggy rocks with trees growing out of them and these cool depressions and potholes you can walk through, in, and around with some so deep there are staircases going down in them. If you live in Minneapolis and haven’t been here, this is one place you have to visit less than an hour away.  The streaky yellow/white is a riverboat that you can take a ride on down river to see some of the rock formations along the way.

This is another cool geotag photo too, the link below goes to a satellite map where you can actually see this tree’s shadow! :)

Find it here:  45°23’55” N;   92°39’7” W

Emerald City

An unexpected landslide in Big Sur made this photo even better!

A while back we took a road trip from Southern California to San Francisco along the Pacific Coast Highway. It was a great drive up the coast until we got almost to Big Sur only to find that a landslide closed the PCH ahead of us and we had to back track a few hours south then north on the CA-99 to get around it. I was bummed That it put us a day behind schedule and into a rain storm when we got to SF. I had really wanted to get a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge from this spot but there was torrential rains coming straight at us on when we got there on both attempts. I almost thought I wouldn’t get it but as we were leaving town to drive home, we crossed the bridge one more time hit a spot of no rain to get this photo here. Had we made it to SF as originally planned, it would probably have been full sun and a less interesting photo than with these cool moody clouds :)

Find it here: 37°49’43” N; 122°29’9” W

taking flight

Wow, it’s been way too long since I posted anything or any photos.  It’s been a busy (when isn’t it) month at work, life, ect. I guess you can always make excuses for why “it” didn’t happen.  Since my last post, I really haven’t been out taking many photos - I think I have been not feeling very creative to tell you the truth.  I did go to Florida on a trip with my mom to see her sister and a cousin from France and that was a fun trip though.

Yeah, lots going on.  I have some cool news that I’ll be able to share and show sometime in April.  Also have had some really some really big life/career decisions to make in the last couple weeks.  I was offered a great promotional opportunity in SoCal but it would have meant relocating closer to Los Angeles.  I was sold on the idea but after some deep thought I realized that I really needed to re-evaluate what was important. Then, that night I came across this great post by photographer David duChemin - Life is Short, and it made me wonder why I was struggling with this decision. It’s really worth reading if you have a moment, I promise you won’t be disappointed.

After reading that, it seemed like the obvious choice - we’ve been in California long enough and it’s time to head back to the Midwest to be closer to family and our property there.  What that means is that we’ll be moving by the end of summer if not sooner as we work out the details.  I’m pretty excited to start this next phase and see what it brings…

Isn’t it strange how we make life much more complicated than it needs to be?  I’ve actually had quite a few pictures ready to post recently but just didn’t feel like sitting down and doing that.  I’ve been in the habit of naming my pictures when I’m done so for this one, that happened a couple months ago.  When I sat down tonight to finally getting around to posting a photo, I had a completely different one in mind, but then browsing my catalog, none felt more appropriate for this post than this one which I named “taking flight” as we get ready to migrate east.

This was taken at the Salton Sea near the North Shore Yacht Club. What a strange and surreal place - a collection of abandoned dreams of seaside resorts and abandoned buildings, boats, and trailers. In this area, the “beach” isn’t composed of sand, but rather crushed shells and the rotting and mummified carcasses of fish washed ashore. In the winter, you can see the snow capped peaks near Big Bear way off in the distance which adds to the feeling of this being a post apocalyptic world.

Find it here:  33°31’13” N;  115°56’18” W