Peaceful wanderings in the Pack Forest

A very wet past 72 hours got me antsy to go hike more new areas for future projects and get a good fix of waterfall hunting in the meantime. The Pack Forest lands south of Eatonville offer a wonderful opportunity for peaceful lonely roaming and there are many trails and roads to choose from. With the dark "dripping" clouds hanging on tight to the foothills my friend and I decided to leave places like Hugo Peak for a second visit in coming weeks, thus we opted to roam northward and enjoy the waterfalls along a stunning gorge where the Little Mashel River flows toward Eatonville where it joins the Mashel River.

What a stellar day of moss and water! The heavy rains of the previous 3 days had the river flowing at a very strong level causing numerous other smaller waterfalls to be cascading over the cliffs than you might normally see, I would have to assume. The overcast light, fresh green moss and leaves coming out, all made for a very lush peaceful setting. And very muddy to slop around in - I think we almost filled our boots with mud on a few occasions as we hiked down toward Lower Mashel Falls!

Return visit will have to happen to fully appreciate roaming the highlands up around Hugo Peak and the Trail of Giants. Western Trillium was starting to bloom in force, Red-flowering Current was blooming near the river, and water was the enjoyment for the day to go along with wonderful company of a good friend. Thanks Michael.

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!

A steamy morning at Snoqualmie Falls

Literally, I mean "steamy" outdoors, not indoors! Snoqualmie Falls is a delight when we get cold weather and what better way to enjoy it than wait out four straight days of temperatures not even coming close to getting above 32* out here and watch the ice build up around the falls. Yesterday morning I finally had to give in to the urge to revisit this frequent stop - the continuing clear sky would offer nice "warm" light back lighting the falls area after sunrise, and it was cranking on day three of morning temperatures in the single digits! This is where the steam comes from - even the cold water of the Snoqualmie River was steaming each morning this week, a sight we don't get around here. It has looked more like winter pre-freezing of rivers in Eastern Washington or North Dakota!

I pulled in to enjoy over 45 minutes of standing in what were 6* temperatures watching the show, of which I was completely alone 44 minutes of it I think. The light from the sunrise was better at adding truly dramatic feelings in my viewfinder that I had thought it could - instead of dealing with spray from the falls like so often happens when the river is quite high, I was dealing with steam! The water was steaming up a storm and that was simply one of the most cool things I've ever seen! I'd like to find the calculations that are involved comparing air temperature vs. water temperature vs. relative humidity to find out what effects what the most. By the time I left the falls at 9:30am the steam effect was far reduced from what I was seeing much of the time. Air temperature then was 13* (and not skyrocketing very quickly!). What a fascinating start to my day. Up next? Massive herds of Trumpeter Swans in the north end of the Valley where I spent 2.5 hours freezing my feet numb standing at an edge of a field with 500-700 swans right in front of me! Stay tuned - this will be a good show-and-tell coming up from me! :)

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!

Central Oregon roamings, part 10 - Newberry National Volcanic Monument - Paulina Creek Falls

OK, so still no thunder was happening when I completed my "hike the Big Obsidian Flow TWICE" gig. So I quickly headed back down the road a bit to the trail head for Paulina Creek Falls. The main view of the falls is a very easy 1/4 mile flat walk. Another more spectacular view from below in the "canyon" is maybe 1/4-1/2 mile down (and back up then!). Another view from the other side of the creek is a lovely 2/3 mile or 3/4 mile each way hike up the creek to the lake outlet, then back down the other side to view. I did all three strolls!

What a lovely place on a day when it was muggy, but getting cooler and breezy. Alas, just as I was hiking up from the last viewpoint for them, boom...first thunder! So my day was done here. Thankfully I was aware of the incoming storms that were predicted to hit. What an UGLY drive back out to US 97 from up in there! And it got much much worse in Bend...that's for another story!

Central Oregon roamings, Part 1 - White River Falls

There is no way to briefly cover the wide assortment of adventures and locations I managed to fit in to a 4+ day photography roadtrip to Central Oregon this week. So why not break it all up into many segments to give due respect for every area of the natural world I was so pleased to visit?!

My first full day had me heading south from The Dalles, OR and roaming randomly planned back roads off the main highways with a goal to be hiking and photographing in the Painted Hills unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument some 12 hours later. Lots of time! I found wonderful abandoned structures such as churches and homesteads which I'll share in a later post here. My main first area was to barrel down into the Deschutes River Canyon near Shearer Falls, then up into the Tygh Valley where the White River flows through.

And here also lies a special hidden treasure of the Oregon State Park system, White River Falls State Park (http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_36.php). Here the White River leaves the flat valley land and dives into a stunning canyon on it's final approach toward the Deschutes River. What a joyous location to be lucky to have morning clouds to give nice details to the water and canyon walls.

The short hike down 1/4 mile to the river below the falls takes you to a wonderful relic of history, an abandoned old hydroelectric power plant which was built in 1910 and supplied Sherman and Wasco Counties with power until 1960. I could have spent a full hour just photographing stuff around this old building! But I had plans for heading east to both the Clarno and Painted Hills units of the fossil beds...so I'll save those for next and leave you with previews of White River Falls, my first main stop!

Next up, Clarno after a nice drive to Maupin, up Bakeoven Road, down through Antelope, and east across the John Day River to the Clarno unit!