Sunday, July 02, 2023

Big Four is Back!

I discovered last month that the Big Four Ice Caves trail is back open! It's a short, easy trail to meadows in front of Big Four Mountain, where there are wildflowers and great views of surrounding peaks and cliffs. For me, all of that is more of a draw than the seasonally visible caves. (And since the caves are formed by water, they are inherently unstable, and getting close to them is unsafe.) It had to be a quick trip, but I was still able to find a couple of nice wildflower scenes.

First, a meadow of Sitka valerian. I like how there were still some morning clouds visible in the distance. F/14.

Next, what I think is a variety of arnica growing in a dry stream bed. It turns out that there are quite a few species of arnica in Washington, so I'm not going to try to be that specific. The selective-focus approach I took here isn't as effective as it was in my mind's eye, but I still think it helps highlight the flowers. F/4.


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