The Mount Baker Highway (SR 542) winds towards Artist Point in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington State, USA
The road to Artist Point
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Having finished photographing the Heather Meadows area back in early October, I headed up the Mount Baker Highway to Artist Point. These three photographs were made from Artist Point, but show the highway (SR 542) on the way up between Heather Meadows and Artist Point.
A scenic parking spot in the North Cascades
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I photographed this small car in this way to not only include some of the late evening light on the rocks above (the lower part of Table Mountain) but also to make it look a bit like a car in the middle of nowhere. The photograph below shows the scene in a bit more context. I think someone had pulled out into that spot for a nap, even when I left after dark they were still in there with the back hatch open.
Scenic parking spot near Artist Point
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You can view more of my photography from the North Cascades in my North Cascades Gallery.
Rolley Lake Provincial Park in Misson, British Columbia is a place I started exploring again last fall having visited it many times as a kid. Last year I was able to find some fall colours in individual trees and went back again last week to hopefully find the same.
This is not Eastern Canada, so we don’t have the large deciduous forests that provide great fall foliage displays. Usually we have to rely on Bigleaf Maples (Acer macrophylum) and Vine Maples (Acer circinatum) for our fall colours in the Fraser Valley, and they don’t always show very well. This year appears to be one of those years where environmental conditions dictated a turn from green to orange/brown rather than a wide array of reds, oranges and yellows. Still, even in a bad year for fall foliage all you need is to find one tree in a photogenic place. The Vine Maple trees were hanging over this spot along the Rolley Lake Trail on the north side of the lake. You can see one is a nice yellow colour, while just a few feet away its cohort is still perfectly green.
Further along the trail you run into a small bridge crossing a creek (that I believe is unnamed) running into the north west side of the lake. Just upstream from the bridge (I did some exploring) I found this tree that had fallen over the creek and was now home to a lot of mosses and some fern species. A textbook definition of a nurse log if you remember that from science class.
On the western side of the lake there is a marshy area filled with a lot of low shrubs (especially Spirea) and this bridge spanning one of the small streams that drain through into the lake. While these shrubs were not exactly showing off a nice fall colour display, I did like their reflection on the lake with the background forest and mist higher up the hillside.
This is one of the two main creeks (also unnamed I believe) that run into Rolley Lake along the north side. I followed this one up the hill for a ways and found this spot that had a few nice, mini waterfalls and mosses and ferns. You can tell in times of higher water that this creek can carry some power – as shown by all the boulders, stumps and other debris in the creek. Not a neat and tidy area, but I thought I’d show the randomness of nature with this one.
You can see more of my Rolley Lake photography in the Rolley Lake Provincial Park Gallery in my Image Archive.
Almost 2 months ago I went down to Mount Rainier National Park to view the wildflowers. Last week I posted some photos I made at Tipsoo Lake. Even on a weekday a National Park will be a busy place, so there were a lot of people hiking the trails and taking photos. For some compositions I waited for the people to be clear of my frame, but for others I tried to photograph what the people were doing on the trails. There was a lot of pointing and photographing this great display of wildflowers.
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Visitors to Mount Rainier National Park’s Wildflower display at Tipsoo Lake
