nooksack river

Mount Shuksan and the Nooksack River

Mount Shuksan towers over the confluence of Swamp Creek and the North Fork of the Nooksack River in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Washington State, USA

mount shuksan and the nooksack river

Mount Shuksan and the Nooksack River (Purchase)

-click to enlarge-

   This is another one of my lunch spots in the North Cascades of Washington State. The North Fork of the Nooksack River runs next to the Mount Baker Highway at many points, this one being just below the point where the highway starts climbing in elevation towards the Mt. Baker ski area. A short drive east up a gravel road and you are presented with this view where Swamp Creek runs into the Nooksack. I only wish the deciduous trees that lined the river at this point were Vine or Bigleaf Maples, as these Red Alder never develop much fall colours.

See more of my photography from this area in my North Cascades Gallery.

Nooksack River and Mount Shuksan

Mount Shuksan and the Nooksack River in the North Cascades, Washington State, USA

mount shuksan and nooksack river washington

Mount Shuksan and the Nooksack River (Purchase)

-click to enlarge-

   One of the downsides of having a lot of backlog in my photo editing is that I tend to forget what I have. I purposefully wait a while in order to process my images, just so that I am somewhat subjective in terms of images that deserve scrutiny and those that don’t. I often have initial expectations that were not met when I review the images too soon, and sometimes that clouds what is really there. At least for me. I do occasionally go back over images that did not leap out at me during a first pass – sometimes I find something I really like. Sometimes this is due to my perception of the image changing and sometimes I have learned some new post processing skills that open the photo to new potential.

   This photo is another example of this phenomenon. I initially passed over it but this weekend viewed it again, and knew how I wanted to process it. I have many photos of Mount Shuksan, but this one is a bit different. This was not taken from Picture Lake, Artist Point or any of my usual places. This is along the North Fork of the Nooksack River (which later flows over Nooksack Falls) at the bottom of the hill near the Shuksan Campground.