Skookum Flat Trail hiking - a great day on the trail with my dog

Yesterday brought nearly 70* temperatures to some western lowland locations and even at 2000' elevation SE of Enumclaw, the warm winds saw me hiking a stellar day in nearly 60* weather. A good portion of the day was spent along the Skookum Flats Trail that runs along the White River, and what a great day to enjoy being out sharing fresh air with my border collie!

Green mossy carpets covering the damp forest floor and actual sandy beaches down along the White River.

The river is so low this winter it was like a summer stroll to the river! Even my wonder mutt seemed to take notice of the massive groves of huge old growth trees.

Mixing in a very steep side scramble up to the base of Skookum Falls where it comes down hundreds of feet where Skookum Creek dumps off of the plateau above, and we had yet another memorable day together in the outdoors. She was content to relax while I drove around locating a few other trailheads that I need to return to this spring, and she never complained about my driving all day!

Thanks for the great day yesterday pooch - we'll get out again next week!

Muck in the desert

Whew, between massive home projects that have kicked off around here the past 1.5 weeks that need monitoring as well as having a few presentations on the schedule (which both went VERY well!) I've been quiet of late. And I also haven't had much chance to use the cameras even though the weather has been stellar, warm, and El Nino wonderfully dry! But I did take some time to at least stretch my legs a bit on my Yakima trip this week, enjoying some long needed fresh air hiking in one of my favorite areas of the Best Desert Hikes-Washington book, the L.T. Murray Wildlife Area between Ellensburg and Yakima. I've hiked up Umtanum Creek Canyon well over a dozen times, and roamed upward toward Umtanum Ridge almost as many. But it keeps sucking me back into stopping there by the suspension bridge crossing over the Yakima River...and it worked again this trip.

It was very overcast - typical for the inversion type of conditions in January in the Columbia Basin. But what really struck me were the ground conditions. Yuck!!!!!! When the desert soils are making the transition from frozen ground to thawed soil, the muck you have to walk in makes it very hard to actually enjoy hiking around. I've typically avoided hiking much in areas like this in late February for this reason, instead waiting for March and seeing nature wake up. But January is a great hiking time out there! Not this time - the warm El Nino conditions of the past week had temperatures even in the cold pockets like this nearing 40* for much of the week (it was 46* when I pulled in to Yakima that evening!). I still went for a two hour roam, but between the muck in the sky vs. the muck at my feet, let's just say this won't be the most photographic or memorable stop I've ever had here! But I did realize it's only two months until things really come to life, and I'll be all over the Columbia Basin ready to enjoy it!

It looks like summer outside!

Ahhh, the sun, all week! This is as good as summer! Well, it's as nice as summer...just a bit more cold! Fresh on the heals of setting my all-time cold temperature just last December 2008 (4.1* on December 21, 2008) we've rolled into December 2009 trying hard to reach that level. Yesterday early on it was 7.0* so I had hopes going into last night. With absolutely no breeze and heading into a night already cold from a high temperature of only 28.1* here yesterday, radiational cooling conditions were perfect! Upon checking data this morning until temperatures started heading back up toward double digits again, we came close! It looks like we have to settle on 5.8* as our overnight low. Not too shabby and even the old plastic thermometer in the orchard was sitting right on the low side of 6* after I returned from taking kidlets to school. Maybe we'll hit 32* by Friday at this rate for a high!
Anyhow, all this excitement is best enjoyed with the thought that hey, I never have to remove my shoes when I come in the house and I don't need to wipe mud and debris off of my border collie when we come in either!

Mud on the pumpkins

Well now, I suppose you could think the past 4 days of weather here in Western Washington means summer is over! Not only have we had days with high temperatures getting up to only 56* and nights in the mid-40's, we also managed to crank out 1.88" of rainfall. And that is without the 0.26" and 0.29" we had on days surrounding that period! But then nice weather returns, just like it is coming. And more summer heat into the 80's likely by the end of the week. I love this time of year and am eager for my favorite hiking season and my favorite photography season. Bring it on! Now....let's pray for that Indian Summer and El Nino to kick in so we have mild weather for outings all winter....

A relaxing break from a busy summer

Wow. That's how I felt this morning. Wow! I've been having a load of fun the past month. A week long trip to the Inland NW for a family vacation. It was great! And I returned home exhausted! It's a lot of work to play so hard and swim, fish, run, fish, play. I love it! Then I got to drive another 600 miles and visit with my own parents this past week. But this morning...the frantic running around must have caught up with me. I'm out in the south Puget Sound and relaxing for a few days. Real relaxation...and it felt SO good this morning! I went for a walk on the beach with my dog while sipping a fresh cup of coffee.

And then a few magical nice moments to photograph, which seems to happen to me every visit out here. That is what a magical place does for the soul...it brings life to a halt and good things come out in front of you. I hope you all have a special activity or place that does this for you as well!
(photos: sunrise on the shoreline waters of Puget Sound; an immature Bald Eagle circling over the photographer at sunrise)

A great week for clouds in the record heat

The hot muggy weather of last week is seemingly a distant memory as we now all seem to be thriving in the cool cloudy mornings with daytime temperatures not even getting out of the 70's again. I know my dog is certainly happy about that too! The heat last week created an atmosphere which was incredibly unstable over the Cascades. There was virtually nothing in place to cap the air from rising to incredible heights, thus creating daily lines of thunderstorms. And oh how enjoyable it was to be cloud-watching all week from my eastern Puget Sound location in the Cascade foothills!

Every day was different, every day was a great cloud watching day,

all week long.

Central Oregon roamings, part 11 - Tumalo Falls and a thunderstorm

Didn't I refer earlier in posts about "the incoming threat of serious weather" that held me back from additional roaming about in Newberry National Volcanic Monument? Yes, I did - and I skipped a long planned 1/2 day stop at the fabulous High Desert Museum south of Bend as well. But as I left there with rumbles of thunder booming the storms seemed they might be building over the US 97 corridor and Bend and moving NE slowly. So I chanced adding one more photography stop I've longed to do there which was 15 miles west of Bend.

Tumalo Creek comes crashing through old burn areas and blasts off a cliff into a canyon forming the lower and most popular part of Tumalo Falls. If you hike a few miles up the creek trail you will find 2 other falls along Tumalo Creek. With distant VERY near constant lightning and thunder rolls from the east of my photographic position at Tumalo Falls, I chose to just hang close to the truck and not risk being on a 6-mile hike should THOSE massive black clouds keep building westward too. I was rewarded with enough great scenery just here anyhow!

Now...the REAL adventure began as I drove back to Bend intending to get back to Prineville some 28 miles NE of Bend for the last night of my trip. This photo was the beginning of things to come as I came back to town:

What we have here is the start of the massive severe thunderstorm warning results that hit the Bend area while I was out at Tumalo. Here there is only areas of 1" of hail on the ground with a lot of water. By the time I was in "old downtown Bend" the ground had up to 4" of hail covering it! To make matters worse, then the storm followed suit with up to 2" of rain in 20-30 minutes. The water had no where to go since all storm drains were clogged with hail. Results? It took me over two hours to find a way to get from the west side of US 97 to the east side of US 97 to get out of town! Every underpass under the highway was flooded with as much as 8' of water in the form of a lake. Thankfully my GPS helped me get far enough south on very goofy side streets to find an OVERpass to get over the highway that didn't just lead me to a low area under water. I only wish I had taken a photo of the snowplows working in town. Yes, you heard me right. Second week of June and the department of transportation quickly got snowplows on the trucks to "plow" the hail off the roads faster to clear storm drains! It was hilarious and a funny way to end my last day in the area before heading home the next morning!

Shooting into the sun

I've always really enjoyed photography with the results I get by shooting into the sun. Sure, it can be distracting with a lot of flare in the image - but I'm not talking about direct sunlight here. You need to be really careful about when and how you decide to do it! Having part of the sun mostly hidden behind an object (ie. tree, mountain, etc...) and shooting with a closed aperture like f/22 and you get the nice star-burst effect. Yesterday showed another reason I enjoy challenging myself shooting into the sun - "crummy foggy days" are great opportunities! The valley gets this a lot of course near the Snoqualmie River and yesterday morning was a nice drive to check out a few local areas while having to go get eggs at the market. I love a good excuse to take an extra 20 minutes to buy eggs or milk! The sun can appear like the moon almost in the foggy morning sunrise....I love it. Give it a try!

(photos top-to-bottom: foggy 'moon-like' look of the sun at sunrise; previous sunrise "into-the-sun" shots from last winter's deep snow and cold)

Told you so

Didn't I say "bring back the snow, I'm going to talk about spring feelings anyhow?" just a couple of days ago? Well, I knew it was going to snow so that was easy on my part, but here you go...more snow! Snow Sunday morning around 1.5", that after Saturday baseball practice cancelled due to...snow. Monday? Make it three days in a row after yesterday afternoon and intense snow for 1.5 hours to get almost 3" on the ground where it had not melted yet.

At least the dog has loved it --- she wonders why her human pets seem so worked up over it all!

(photos: "no gardening today"; Mittens pausing while waiting for me to catch up to her on our morning property hike around)

Snow...just as expected, and on queue!

Aha, so I spout off about feeling all "springy" and things that were bright yesterday. The emerging Indian Plum, the frolicking Bald Eagles. Today? Snow! First light a snapshot out the window....later in the morning, more. Ah well, we'll have more this weekend so enjoy springs upcoming arrival. Maybe before July!

The departure of high waters in The Valley

It feels somewhat relaxing to see the Snoqualmie River back down again, looking innocently peaceful and now hard to fathom how water could have filled that much of a void above the current river levels. Amazing! OK, it's time to start putting the weather behind me and get busy searching for wonderful things in the natural world to learn about and photograph -- time to head out and find the Trumpeter Swans again and search for a reported small flock of Snow Geese in the lower Snoqualmie Valley and also down by the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge!
(photos top to bottom: (1)SR 202 late Wednesday as river approached crest of flood event; (2)Alderra Field aftermath - play ball anyone?; (3)Neal Road heading toward Fall City Farms; (4)Fishing anyone? WDFW public boat launch area near confluence of Raging/Snoqualmie Rivers

SR 202 washout and airlift

Sadly, one of the main state highways in the Snoqualmie Valley, SR 202, became the scene of earmark video and images seen around the region and even outside of our state on Thursday afternoon 1/8/09. Not only did SR 202 have about a 90' section collapse and wash out, but the resulting rapid flow into the area homes ended in an emergency airlift of five or six members of the valley community. I'd like to personally thank every member of our regions emergency personnel and DOT agencies for all of the hard work put in 24-hrs a day helping make this flood event one throughout Washington pass without loss of life. And especially a thank you to the skills granted the fine individuals with the King County Sheriff staff flying Guardian Two and able to perform airlifts when things go from bad to worse.

Being capable of doing amazing things like these images only begin to share...we all should extend our thanks to them. Also do not forget to say thank you to your own neighbors who cared to ask you if you were doing OK.

(photos: scenes from east of Fall City on SR 202 showing aid personnel, washed out areas of the highway, airlift operations, etc...)

Too much water...a record flood on the Snoqualmie River

What a way to have the kids ease back into the school deal after an almost three week Christmas break. Monday a half day of school due to melting new snow, and one full day Tuesday. Now massive snows of the past three weeks have been flushed through Fall City and many surrounding communities from the Cascade Mountains runoff of melting snow and up to 17" of rainfall in under 48 hours at some mountain remote gauges. I've been busy trying to track what events have been occurring in our community, and also track what to do with yet three more days missed from school Wed-Fri this week! The Snoqualmie River near Carnation crested yesterday morning at 62.31 feet, a full foot higher than any previously recorded crest of the river since 1932. That is over 8 feet above flood stage across the entire valley! At Snoqualmie Falls the peak flow rate was over 60,300 cubic feet per second of water. Flood stage is 20,000cfs and most people who visit the falls see 2000-3000cfs or less. As I get through events of the past few days I'll continue to update things with what photographic journalism I got around to seeing - too much to share in just one post! (photos top-to-bottom: Welcome to Fall City and SR 202 bridge; Neal Road by King County Park; Fall City Grill on SR 203; SR 202 just east of Fall City before the washout occurred)