Flowers at Tom McCall Point

My last post was a landscape photograph from the hike at Rowena overlook hike on the Tom McCall preserve in Oregon. These photographs showcase flowers that I saw on the hike. I really enjoyed all of the purples and blues in the flowers that were blooming.

When I was there last I got to see all of the yellow flowers at their peek which was also magnificent. I hope you enjoy my shots and have a great week!

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Burnt trees and flowers at Tom McCall Hike

For mothers day my mom and I took our cameras out to Tom McCall Point hike at Rowena overlook and spent the afternoon photographing the view and wild flowers of this beautiful Oregon hike.

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It looks like there was a fire since I had been there last and there was this beautiful view of these burnt trees surrounded by the wildflowers of spring. These were my favorite photographs from the day.

Photography of Multnomah Falls

This fall I had the pleasure of having the opportunity to show my cousin around the Portland, Oregon area for a day.

My cousin is from New York, which has its fair share of beautiful hikes, landscapes, and waterfalls to be sure. If you only think of New York as the Big Apple you should really check out one of my posts from trips I have taken out there.

In any case I wanted to show her a little of the many things I love about the greater Portland area and the Columbia Gorge and Multnomah Falls was high on my list. I had never in my 30 years of living in the Pacific Northwest hiked all the way to the top of the falls so I decided to take this opportunity to share that experience with my cousin.

It turns out, it is really steep at parts, but it seems at the spot everyone stops to take a rest or give up, you are basically there. So if you go and feel like you have hit your limit, take a breather and plug on, you are probably really, really close!

The top has a beautiful view of the gorge and you can see the falls as they drop over the cliff. I will say that from the top, that is about all you can see of the large falls, but there is a small falls just before the drop off, and the view of the gorge plus the acompishment were worth the rather short trek.

After we looked over the edge we back tracked a bit to this little bridge which is where Larch Mountain Trail splits off of the Multnomah Falls Trail. I loved how lush and green it was in this spot.

Photographs of Family Trip to Smith Rock

Two weeks ago I shared a couple of my favorite photographs from the short trip my family took to Smith Rock in September and I have a few more photographs that show more what it was like to be visiting that magnificent Oregon State park. We ended up doing quite a long loop that was a bit much for my kids. I ended up giving each of them turns on my back for the last mile or two.

It was really neat to see the climbers in action, especially the ones on Monkey Face which is almost unfathomable to me. We got to watch three people come down off the top of it. The next most facinating thing was watching someone tight rope walk across a giant cliff to another cliff, it really made me worry that person would fall, so much so that I did not even want to photograph it.

The blue sky was quite vibrant this day which was way in my initial post I was hesitant to make the photographs black and whiye, even though I really like the end result.

Smith Rock Photographs in Black and White

In September I traveled to the Bend area with my kids and my Mom. We had the opportunity to stay at Eagle Crest Resort for the weekend. The resort itself had wonderful amenities, but of course we wanted to make it out to see Smith Rock which is a destination for rock climbers and hikers traveling to Eastern Oregon. The sheer cliffs are quite dramatic and create a fun photography destination as well. These two photographs I decided to try out in black and white and ended up really liking them even though they lose the blue sky and orange rock color.

We were there right in the middle of the day so contrast was really high and although it was sunny, since it was September, it was a quite cool day. I look forward to sharing some photographs of us at the top of those cliffs and of a climber descending from Monkey Rock, which was hard to believe (to me) they could ascend in the first place. 🙂

Mt Hood and Downtown Portland

I cannot believe it took me this many years to find this spot in Portland, Oregon! A friend and I decided we are going to try and hike all of Wildwood trail in Forest Park this year and set out this last Sunday to start. We began our hike at the Audobon Society of Portland and walked up to Pittock Mansion where we were able to view downtown Portland and Mount Hood at the same time, it was a beautiful site!

Close Up at Mt. Rainier National Park

I have been really lucky that most years an Aunt and Uncle of mine come from New York out to Oregon to go to the Oregon Country Fair and arrive in time for my birthday most times. We almost always take their visit as an opportunity to head out and go camping in either Oregon or Washington for a few days. This years was no different, except that I was graced with the presence of another one my aunts which was wonderful! This year we drove up to Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington.

We found a great camp site at the White River Camp grounds in Mt. Rainier National Park and then took off to do a short hike before dark. This was a trip where I had my kids along and hiking was enjoyable, but required a bit of, let’s say encouragement from all of the adults to make it past the parking lot. However, I did manage to get a few photographs of various things while on the trip and so for this weeks photography challenge of close up, I am sharing from these photographs.

It was beautiful and there were quite a few wildflowers still hanging around, although in comparison to most other years they were actually very early, we had apparently missed the huge show of flowers by at least a week.

The flowers of course bring out the pollinators and so we got to see several different butterflies however this was the only on I captured staying still.

Of course there is nothing quite like being up close to a beautiful mountain, although they tend to photograph better from a bit further back in my opinion. This was taken at Sunrise on the hike up to frozen lake, which was in no way frozen this trip.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Letters

These photographs were taken just outside of Portland in West Linn, Oregon at the Camassia Natural Area. This is a really easy walk that is stunning at this time if year. It is filled with blue Camas Lilies and little pink flowers, and tons of birds. The Nature Conservancy has supported this area, clearing it of ivy and creating a path so the flowers can be viewed, but protected. I think it is funny there is a sign to the high school that appears to be point at the field of flowers, I mean this area would be a great environment for learning. 🙂

You can join the Weekly WordPress Photo Challenge also just click the link. 🙂

Weekly Photo Challenge: Three (2)

Wow, I can’t believe it! I got another set of three ready to post again this week. These are photos I took almost a year ago that I have many more to edit, and have been meaning to get around to for, well almost a year, ha ha ha.

A friend and I took a hike during flower season last spring at a place called Tom McCall Preserve. I did not realize how steep this hike is when we started out. I had gone to this place with my Mom and my kids a while back, but we stayed on a very flat trail. My friend was totally unprepared to go on such a difficult incline I suspect. However this is a hike that has more than enough breathtaking views to give you a break every step if you wanted to stop that often.

Starting out you are able to look out over the Columbia Gorge and a field of flowers. As you progress up the hill you start to see Mount Adams (I think) peeking up from the North. It soon is completely visible with the gorge situated in view as well.

Along the way you see Indian Paint brush, as well as flowers in purple, yellow, white, and greens. There are butterflies and birds. Plenty to feast your eyes on.

As you make a sudden turn around the bend nearing the vista we stopped at is the definite climax of the hike, where all of a sudden Mount Hood pops up to the West. Bam, seriously I made a huge gasp when I saw it.

Of course it was windy as heck once we made the plateau looking out over Mount Hood (it is the Gorge) so because we did not prepare well for our hike we did not stay an extraordinarily long time. It was a hike well worth it.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Object

A bolt from the Lacamas Lake Dam bridge. Taken while walking with a friend teaching her about the basics of photography. 🙂 I really like objects with this aged element to them. I had a couple of pictures of this because I was demonstrating what different apertures can do to the lighting. This was my favorite I like the softer focus, but I did do a bit of post editing and played around a bit with the brightness, finally settling on a darker version of the picture.

It is getting cold here, but we are yet to have snow. My kids are still hoping for the snow though! I think coming up next I will share my pictures from a couple months ago when it was very cold. I spent so much time on editing and posting about Maine that I still haven’t gotten around to those icy pictures!