Misery and the Blues

Well, I went and did it: a camping trip to the Blue Mountains of southeast Washington. I spent two nights at the Misery Spring Campground, which is roughly thirty miles south of Pomeroy. For the most part, I explored scenery along the roads near the campground. The sunny weather, while certainly welcome for tent camping, precluded much in the way of extensive day hiking - I needed to be situated to take pictures in the early morning and late evening. Thankfully, the forest roads did not disappoint, and the traffic was quite light; the road south from the campground in particular was very quiet made for a nice walk. In fact, it was from that road that I saw a herd of elk! First time I've seen elk in the wild!

The Blue Mountains are different from anywhere I've been. In terms of flora, they remind me a bit of the east slopes of the Cascades, with maybe a drier assortment of plants. The terrain is quite dissimilar, though, with broader ridges and plateaus and extensive river canyons. I'm hoping to do some reading this summer about the natural and cultural history of the Blue Mountains. In terms of culture, I'm sure the region has been and is significant to Native tribes, although I'm not familiar with specifics; I do know that U.S. settlers on the Oregon Trail dreaded the range, and sheep and cattle grazing began on the 19th century.

I've gotten slowed down identifying the plants from this trip. First, some of them are difficult for me as a nonspecialist to distinguish, such as varieties of aster. Second, my guides don't cover this region well. But I have at least a general idea of what most of them are, and may make some more specific discoveries and updates as time goes on.

First is the big prize - the view overlooking the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness from a viewpoint near the campground; in this image, the view is roughly southwest over the First Creek drainage. The flowers in the foreground are penstemon. The polarization of the sky is a bit uneven, but I think I can lighten the upper left part of the image. F/22.

Next are a couple views from Forest Road 40 over the Tucannon drainage. The first in this pair features paintbrush as the most prominent flower; the second, penstemon. F/22 in both cases.

The next pair consists of views from the same stretch of road early in the morning, when there was some interesting pink color in the sky. In present JPEG form, the color shows up better in the first image than in the second, although I think I could bring it out in both. F/22 in both cases.

The last view is looking more or less south from the viewpoint toward the Wallowa Mountains. F/18.

Now, a few landscapes other than the views. First is a view of a nice clump of paintbrush in an area that appears to have burned not long ago. F/29.

Next is a meadow of penstemon and other flowers. F/25.

Lastly, a few flower closeups. The first is aster. Note the rich color of the sky - one interesting aspect of photography at high altitudes is that the polarizing filter works more effectively. In some situations, you can make a clear sky look practically black. F/8.

Next is a penstemon. F/4.

Next is what I believe to be a buckwheat of some kind. F/4.

Finally, an opening flower that I haven't been able to identify but might be a knapweed. If so, it's likely an invasive plant, but I think it's cool picture. F/4.2.

Gold Creek

Yesterday, I went to the Gold Creek trail near Snoqualmie Pass, taking advantage of the even overcast lighting in the morning. The advantage of the Gold Creek Trail is that there are some quite scenic sections early on that can be reached without too much effort, allowing me to get the most out of the early morning. Another advantage is that, compared to other trails along the I-90 corridor, it's lightly used. This gives me time to set my tripod on the trail and get a proper composition without tripping anyone.

Something unique about this trip was that I made frequent use of the heavy artillery - for I think the first three images, definitely the first and third, I used my ultra wide lens. Sometimes it feels a bit silly carrying it around, given that I use it far less often than the other lenses, but it can sure come in handy.

First, a shot looking across the valley with some tiger lilies in the background; this is near the beginning of the trail. Although you can't see all of the peaks in the distance, the clouds were starting to get interesting. With some tasteful touching up, the clouds would look even better. F/25.

Next is a little clump of some scarlet paintbrush from nearby. F/25.

Next, from farther along the trail, is a view of the hemlock forest that characterizes much of the valley. F/18.

The forest depicted above (which also includes other trees like silver fir) alternates with brushy areas filled with willows, vine maple alder, and wildflowers. Below is one such spot, with thimbleberry flowers in the foreground and Sitka valerian behind them. F/25.

Lastly, a new flower, at least to my photography: rosy twistedstalk, Streptopus roseus. F/3.8.

Discovery trip

Night before last, I had the pleasure of heading down to Discovery Park for evening/sunset. I wanted to take advantage of the calm conditions - Discovery Park can get quite breezy on summer evenings, I've found, making plant or flower foregrounds challenging. But for whatever reason, the weather pattern on Tuesday had produced a very calm evening, and I knew from forecasts that Wednesday was likely to be similar.

We'll start with the best image of the night, some dandelion seeds framed against the sunset. F/3.5. Waiting until just before the sun dipped below the horizon (well, the Olympic Peninsula) resulted in the rich yellow color.

And below is some yarrow with Puget Sound in the background. Why are the yarrow in some parts of Discovery Park so deeply pink, when they are white to whitish pink everywhere else? The ongoing mystery continues. F/18 to preserve some shape in the green bush in the background, as well as to clarify the outline of the Sound.