Mt. Adams farmstead

Another view of Mt. Adams from my trip to Trout Lake last weekend, this time from the edge of an old farmstead. According to a sign at the entrance, the farm dates back to the turn of the 20th Century. I suppose the wetland area in the foreground is merely the result of heavy rains that came through a few days earlier and soil tending toward clay. It's probably all dried out by now. Glad it was there during my visit because it gave me a chance to frame a reflection of the mountain.

Linking to Weekend Reflection.

On the Horizon

Well it's starting to look like summer in the gorge! I don't get to photograph Mt. Adams very often. It's barely visible from my town, and even then only from the higher elevations. Of the three volcanoes near the Columbia Gorge, Mt. Hood and Mount St. Helens are mainly what we see. But on Saturday we were in Trout Lake, gateway town to Mt. Adams, and the weather was 'picture perfect'! So of course I made time for some photography as we drove through. As an added bonus we had so much snow in the mountains this year, Mt. Adams is still almost completely covered, with summer only days away.

Blue Sky

A bright and sunny day at Trout Lake, near Mt. Adams.  Elevation at Trout Lake, 1800 ft. It was probably 50 degrees yesterday, and forecast to hit 60 today, so the snow is melting away. A winter blue is not my favorite, but after our rainy winter I'll take it! Cute little tree farm in the foreground.

Mt. Adams from Hood River

Working my way around a panoramic view from my afternoon in Hood River.  Pear tree facing south, rainbow facing west, and now Mt. Adams facing north.  This also came as a surprise to me.  The elevation changes so much that at any given time you could see no volcanoes, one, two, three, or on rare occasion four.  From this view in the hilly blueberry field, you can see Mt. Adams to the north and probably see Mt. Hood to the south, but the southern view was completely clouded over, so I'm not sure. Love all the snow on Mt. Adams!  I'm sure Hood and St. Helens will look the same once we get a clear day.  I missed seeing these snow peaks during out hot summer.

Mirror Lake

One of many Mirror Lakes, I'm sure.  This one reflecting Mt. Adams,  near the Bird Lake Meadow trail head. The photo was taken during my hike in late June, and lost in draft mode on my blog.  I think I was saving it for a weekend reflection and then forgot.  After a really hot summer, it has cooled off a bit here, and we've had some rain, so Mt. Adams happens to be looking about this snowy again.

Linking to Weekend Reflections

Paintbrush

Just one example of the beautiful wildflowers blooming near Mt. Adams this summer. Before my hike at Bird Creek Meadow I had only seen the red-orange version of Indian paintbrush. Along the meadow trail both the red-orange version and this more pinkish rose-colored version are common. At first I thought this flower was not Indian paintbrush, but after exploring a little on the internet I've learned that varieties of this flower bloom in all sunset shades including purple and gold.

Bird Creek Meadow

Flower Field in Litzlberg  (1905)
  Gustav Klimt

A snapshot showing the variety and abundance of wildflowers blooming last weekend along the Bird Creek Meadow Trail near Mt. Adams. Flowers, bees, and butterflies were everywhere, and although I didn't hike far enough to come upon a large meadow vista, I did want to capture all the colors.  Last week I  was thinking back to the artistic photography class I took over the winter, and how much I got out of the assignments where I had to photograph in the style of a famous artist. I figured I could continue to work on that myself, and randomly checked out a Klimt Landscapes book. Even though the lighting on the hike was a little bright for my liking, this particular photo does a passably good job of replicating Klimt's mosaic-like, detailed foliage style of painting...but not his composition, so I'm going to keep working on the photo.

Bird Creek

I made a little stop at these falls along my adventurous drive to Bird Creek Meadow.  A very minimal bridge crossed this creek, and just after the bridge was the first tiny turnout on my route.  It turns out that this unmarked creek was none other than Bird Creek, which maybe seems intuitive, but the number of rivers and creeks flowing from Mt. Adams is quite numerous, so I wasn't making any assumptions.  Especially since I drove maybe 3 or 4 miles past this creek to the trail head.  The area around the small falls and turnout was surprisingly inviting, given the ruggedness of the drive thus far, and it seemed to me like a marvelous spot for a picnic table.  Lots of inviting flat rocks around though, so I'm imaging this as a nice little rest stop the next time I venture up to Mt. Adams.

Mt. Adams

Well...after a pretty long break, I'm back posting, at least for a little while.  I have to say I've enjoyed the time off, and as much as I want to be out with my camera again this is a hard time of year for my photography.  The sun rises so early and sets so late, and when it's up, the light is so harsh.  But over the weekend, Bill and I got up super early to head to Mt. Adams country.  He was participating in a bike tour there, so I dropped him off and headed up to Bird Creek Meadow, which I read was a beautiful wildflower hike near Mt. Adams.  It was beautiful, but as it turns out I didn't have quite enough time for it.  I had to drive only 11 miles up a gravel then dirt road to get to the trail head, but the road was in such poor condition that it took me an hour to drive that stretch.  Then I hiked for another hour and a half, which got me to the point where I took this photo.  Lovely, lovely, overwhelming number of wildflowers the whole way, but I don't think I quite made it to the large meadow before I had to turn back.  And even though we got up at 4am for this trip, by the time I got to this almost meadow section of the hike it was 11am and way too bright for photography!  I'd like to try this hike again, but logistically I need to figure out how to make it work.  In the meantime, I've got a few more photos to share in the coming days.