narada falls

Narada Falls at Mount Rainier NP

The base of Narada Falls at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State, USA

narada falls in mount rainier national park

Narada Falls in Mount Rainier National Park

-click to enlarge-

   During the summer of 2012 I was in Mount Rainier National Park on a photography trip. As with many days at Mount Rainier – the clouds rolled in and you couldn’t see the mountain – not even the Tatoosh Range. On my first trip there in 2009 I remember explaining to some German tourists (who were excited to see Mount Rainier) while standing in the Paradise parking lot that actually the mountain IS right there… you just can’t see it. I suggested some of the waterfalls but they weren’t interested – they must not have been photographers! So with similar conditions presented in 2012 I photographed Narada Falls instead. There are only so many points where you can see the falls, so doing all that much creative with wider angles is not easy. For this photograph I pulled out the 70-200mm lens to find some details I liked. I have a number of photographs of some other details of Narada Falls but I think my favourite is this photo of the water hitting the rocks at the base..

   I also chose this photograph to again play around with some black and white conversions. This was my favourite iteration of Narada Falls in black and white from my experimentation. Does this monochrome version work for you?

Narada Falls in Mount Rainier National Park

Narada Falls during Summer in Mount Rainier National Park, Washington State, USA

view of narada falls in mount rainier national park

View of Narada Falls (Purchase)

-click to enlarge-

   A few weeks ago I visited Mount Rainier National Park in the hopes of viewing a full display of wildflowers at the Paradise area of the Park. Unfortunately, this was not to be as clouds obscured the mountain from the Paradise side and most of the Tatoosh Range for the duration of my stay. However, I did come away with many photographs I am quite happy with. As is the case with many of my visits to the park, the weather has changed my plans – but as always there are all manner of great things to photograph near Rainier. I was fortunate to be at Rainier during the same time as photographers Rob Tilley and Gary Hamburgh. After we met up at Paradise we decided that a trip to Narada Falls would be better than dealing with the clouds at Paradise.

narada falls in mount rainier national park

Narada Falls in Detail (Purchase)

-click to enlarge-

   I have always found the short walk down to Narada Falls to be worth it regardless of the weather. I don’t always photograph there but I found the lower water levels of a few weeks ago photographically interesting. They also came with much less spray to keep off of my lenses and camera. After trying a successful experiment at Eureka Falls I’ve been using my 70-200mm lens to focus on the details of many waterfalls I have encountered. I still enjoying the overall view of a waterfall, but sometimes cutting out the extraneous details can be a more visually pleasing photograph.

Subalpine Fir – Mt. Rainier National Park

These shots were taken at Narada Falls but really could be from anywhere in Mt. Rainier National Park. Sometimes I put on a specific lens (my 100mm macro or the 50mm f/1.4) in order to force myself to find ways to compose shots with it. Many here at Narada Falls wound up being uninteresting – but I do like these of the fir trees. I am presuming, after some attempt at keying the species, that this is the Subalpine Fir (Abies lasiocarpa).

subalpine fir abies lasiocarpa pinnacle peak subalpine fir

subalpine fir abies lasiocarpa subalpine fir abies lasiocarpa subalpine fir abies lasiocarpa

Narada Falls – Mt. Rainier National Park

I previously posted a “panorama” shot from the trail next to Narada Falls. These are a few more of the falls and the surrounding area.

narada falls paradise river narada falls

narada falls narada falls narada falls

pinnacle peak tatoosh range paradise river narada valls paradise river

Peaks in the Tatoosh Range

ricksecker point tatoosh range

Cloudier view of the Nisqually River Bridge near the source of the Nisqually River just below the glacier.

nisqually river bridge

Narada Falls Panorama Mt. Rainier National Park

Panorama of Narada Falls on the Paradise River in Mt. Rainier National Park. At approximately 1390 meters (4560 feet) in elevation the small hike there seemed a bit steeper than it was. I passed a few people who were gasping on the trail. The lower falls pictured here drop about 57 meters (188 feet).

8 exposures stitched, Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 @ 11mm

narada falls on the paradise river