Monday, January 26, 2009
Mt Rainier National Park: Ghost trees
In the high meadows just below tree-line, where the trees no longer grow at all, there are many standing skeletons of trees that survived a while to grow, until a season came that overwhelmed them. From Sunrise, there is a trail that leads down among these haunted woods. Some struggle on through the...
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Mt Rainier National Park: Morning in the Vale
Looking north-- Rainier is to the west...
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Saturday, January 24, 2009
Mt Rainier National Park: views away from the mountain
Looking down into the vales below Sunrise... Where, the night before, it was filled with mist like a glowing sea, illuminated by moonlight. In the morning comes this perfect clarity of vision. And you can hear the cheery busy-ness of birds and ever-vigilant whistles of marmots. The Sub-Alpine Fir...
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Thursday, January 22, 2009
Mt Rainier National Park: Morning on the mountain
These were taken after a night in the parking lot at Sunrise, the tourist center on the eastern side of Mt Rainier National Park. The night before had been utterly clear overhead, full of stars and moon, but the valleys far below, on every side, were filled with a sea of cloud, lit by moonlight. I...
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Booking the next adventure...
It will be autumn in New Zealand, in May... One of my favorite times of year! I will be there a month, then return home to summer, and then autumn again. Of course, in the Pacific NW, June can be very spring-ish, so maybe I won't miss out on spring this year after all. Mind you, I am not...
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Wednesday, January 14, 2009
an answer for Majroj
There's Mt. Rainier peering over the hills southwest of this scene. You can see the shadow of the bridge in the glacial silt-laden river. The Carbon River, in the devastating rains of the December after the summer I took these pictures, flooded fiercely, and Majroj, the bridges I saw are no doubt...
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This blog celebrates its 2000th click!
And gapcohen, Mal gets credit for it, having left a comment as well. The surprise prize, Mal: give me a subject, a place, a theme or whatever you like, and I will try to match a picture to it out of my travel archives. Thank you to everyone who has visited since this one started in March, 2007, as I...
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Mount Rainier National Park: Carbon River Footbridges
Across the expanse of the Carbon River's natural bed of sand and cobble, the summer waters run through several channels which, in winter rains and spring thaws, become one, with sand-banks here and there. I was there in the late summer a few years ago, and these bridges over each channel drew me on...
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Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Craters of the Moon: Life in a barren zone
It doesn't take much to inspire a pine to grow, nor for a raptor to build a nest even in this stark landscape. To see this hawk's nest, you climb a path up a miniature volcano, --actually a fumarole that once stood on the lava plain spitting out assorted noxious steams and gasses, until the hot spot...
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Craters of the Moon: Lava tube caves
Like fossil footprints of passing dinosaurs: the molten lavas flowed beneath cooling surfaces, until they had flowed away, leaving pockets and tunnels. When the surface breaks under weathering, it lets in the light and the tourists. These caves have offered some rough shelter and dubious security to...
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