I-90's Best Secret

The Gold Creek Trail (#1314, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest) has to be one of I-90's best, most surprising secrets. It's very easy to drive to from the interstate, but I hardly ever see any one there. Even the Gold Creek Pond, an adjacent ADA-accessible loop trail, is usually relatively bereft of visitors. Not that I mind having the place to myself. But the area is very lovely, and few people know about it!

Shortly after its starting point, the Gold Creek Trail passes through a rocky area with expansive views of the ridges/mountains on the other side of the valley. This time, I think I got a more interesting photographic take on the views than I did last year. This one, for example, puts the trail's lush foliage into the foreground. It could use a bit of lighting work, but it's really pretty close.

This next one I like compositionally. It needs some serious lighting and color work, obviously. But I like how the lines of the branches converge toward the mountain. I also like the juxtaposition of the lush green leaves and the still-snowy mountain.

At the place where the trail passes the gravel beach on the creek, I set my tripod up among the rocks on the edge of waterway (after dropping it in the drink, of course). I was pleasantly surprise that I was able to expose this one relatively well: the dark trees and the illuminated hill fall generally within a useable tonal range.

Now, on to some of the flowers. This first one I haven't identified yet (is it a thistle of some kind?) But I got a pretty good picture of one if I may say so.

There are a lot of bluebells (specifically, western mertensia or broad-leaved bluebells, Mertensia platyphylla) that are just beginning to bloom. This particular plant, fortunately adorned with dew, I managed to photograph at just the right moment. The plant had been shaded, but I took this photograph just as the sun was peeking over the large shrubs on the other side of the trail. So I got some sunshine colors and a bit of illumination on the dew, but the light was still diffused and therefore not too harsh.

By the time I took this next one, the lighting was harsher, which is why the picture is so high-contrast. I also don't like the out-of-focus water droplet bottom center. But I think my main concept, which was having the flowers juxtaposed against out-of-focus mountains in the background, was a success.

Finally, I took a good picture of a trillium, for once! It was quite an odyssey yesterday: there was a light breeze generally running through the valley, which made photographing forest-floor flowers like trillium quite difficult. But I took advantage of a moment of partial sunshine through the trees to get my shutter speed down and take this one (in fact, I think I underexposed it). Lightened up, it would be better. I like how the three leaves emerge from a center point hidden by the flower.

Now a couple other photographs worthy of posting. In this one, I like the color of the trunk and how all the branches swoop down in the same direction. The trees are hemlocks (I'm not 100% sure what variety).

This last one is of the view from one of the open areas along the trail. I usually am unhappy when I end up with really obvious uneven sky polarization, as you see in this photograph. But when I look at it, I think that perhaps it works. In this case, it adds and expansive feeling to the photograph that wouldn't be there if the sky were uniformly colored. Maybe.