Hells Canyon & Glacier National Park Trip - Part 2 (The Road To Glacier)

Now it was time for the daunting part of the trip - a 450 mile drive from Hells Canyon to the West entrance of Glacier National Park in Montana.  My plan was to park up around 40 miles away from the park entrance and catch 2-3 hours of sleep in the car before sunrise.  Having already covered 531 miles this meant having to cover just shy of 1000 miles, no mean feat along with all the stops and short walks/hikes I had done around Brownlee Dam and Hells Canyon.

 

The first 2 hours of this drive were probably the easiest, as I found myself having to wind my way through the valley floors and along the mountain passes which linked North East Oregon with South East Washington.

Here's a sample of just one of the views that I had from the top of one mountain, looking along the canyon.

And yup, that is the exact sort of road off to the right of the image that I mentioned above.  The area here was called Paradise, personally I think they need to add the word "Driver" to the front of that - it certainly is!

 It may have been great fun to drive, but unfortunately it was also bad for draining the energy which I still had in reserve, but somehow the lure of Glacier kept me pushing North through Washington, then East into Idaho (with the area which I was travelling through looking so flat in comparison to the landscape which I had left behind in Oregon and Washington)

As the cars clock, which was still one timezone behind after crossing from Pacific Savngs Time (PST) into Mountain Savings Time (MST), struck 11pm (midnight in local time) I was around 80 miles away from the entrance to Glacier and pushed on through the tiredness for another 40 miles to my planned "kip-stop" near the town of Somers which lay on the shores of Flathead Lake to the South West of Glacier National Park.

Finally it was time for a few hours shuteye, albeit in the not-so-comfy seat of my hirecar.

Estimated mileage at this stage - 915 miles
Actual mileage at this stage - 984 miles

Hells Canyon & Glacier National Park Trip - Part 1 (Brownlee Dam & Hells Canyon)

I was up, showered and out the door of my hotel around 25 miles West of Portland for 4am and just as the sun was beginning to breach the horizon at 6.32am I was about to say my farewell to the Columbia River which was just about to wind it's way Northwards, whereas I would continue due East.  The sunrise at the East end of the Columbia Gorge got my spirits up and boosted my hopes that this was going to turn out to be one hell of a weekend.

After what seemed like forever it was time to finally stop driving due East and swing South towards Baker City, which lies in front of the Blue Mountains, which as like many things in America have been named based on how they looked to the casual observers who made their way across America in years gone past.

After passing Baker City it was time to once again head East, in the direction of the tiny villages of Pine and Halfway which lie just on the West side of the Hells Canyon National Recreation area.  As I approached the village of Pine, the green fields began to die away except for one single, solitary, lonely tree which looked completely out of place, and in the distance the huge cliffs of Hells Canyon began to dominate the skyline.

A little further along the road, it was time for a double take as I passed a roadsign, took a second or so to think if it said what I thought it did and then reverse back up the road to find out.  After around four and a half hours of driving it was funny to have the "this is Sparta!" line running through my head.

As I continued getting closer and closer to Hells Canyon the surrounding area turned more and more desert-like.

With so much desert-like area around, there was one farm which stuck out like a sore thumb due to how green its fields were, I wouldn't want to know how much money they have to spend on water to keep the place running, compared with how much easier it would be to do so 50 miles West of here.

When you find yourself driving through mile upon mile of desert, the slighest blot of colour on the landscape grabs your attention, in this case a patch of sunflowers which lined the road.  Sun, in this area comes in abundance, water is a whole different story, so as you can imagine the sunflowers no doubt were battling one another for the small amount of water on offer in the ground they sat on.

Just outside of Pine was a little information area, which for all intents and purposes was a flat section of land with a loop to drive in and out of, it did however have a few cool features worthy of a photo.

 

First off the old grain tower which is looking pretty weather beaten now.

And then the signpost, which appeared to show directions to almost every and any location within a hundred miles of it!

I brushed along the South periphery of Hells Canyon, which offered a small glimpse of what was to come later in the day and met up with Snake River which winds it's way along the canyon floor to the North after it had swung from the East where the border with Idaho lay.  The border of Oregon and Idaho is where Brownlee Dam is located, my first main stop of the day.

Here's a view of the dam from the reservoir that lies above the valley floor.

And then one of the valley floor which lies below.

 

After leaving Brownlee Dam it was time to follow the South bank of Snake River.

Then it was time to head on North through the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area itself.

The main overlook of Hells Canyon was what I can only describe as the same sort of view anyone who has visited the likes of the Grand Canyon would know - it's simply so massive that any attempt to take photographs of it seem to make it look small to the viewer.  This exact reasoning applies to the panorama below of the canyon.

To put this into perspective - to drive from where I was standing to the peaks on the far side, my navigation system estimated just shy of 8 hours of driving, yup, I don't care what you say - that means it's BIG!

As I left the Hells Canyon area from it's North end it was time to take a note of my mileage to compare it with what I had estimated previously.

Estimated mileage at this stage - 465 miles
Actual mileage at this stage - 531 miles

Hells Canyon & Glacier National Park - Hells Canyon & Glacier National Park - The Planning

After my recent roadtrip to spend sunrise through sunset at Crater Lake a month or two back, I had some crazy notions about taking it one step further for my next major trip (those single day 600 mile drives don't count anymore in my eyes).

With a 3 day weekend for Labor Day looming at the start of September I started making plans for what on paper looked to be a good 1700 mile mammoth roadtrip, which I would do over two and a half days of the extended weekend.

1700 miles in around 2 days, yup, you heard me right, where the hell was I planning to go, here's the rundown:-

Saturday AM - Drive from hotel through Columbia Gorge and onto Brownlee Dam on border with Idaho

Saturday afternoon - Explore Hells Canyon which is the deepest "gorge" in America (according to it's Wikipedia article)

Estimated mileage at this stage - 465 miles

Saturday PM - Head North through the mountains and valleys of Oregon & Washington, swing East into Idaho and then continue on into Montana in the direction of Glacier National Park

Estimated mileage at this stage - 915 miles

Sunday AM - Catch sunrise at East Glacier, spend the day exploring the National Park

Estimated mileage at this stage - 1060 miles

Sunday PM - Start the long drive back to the hotel.

Monday AM - Arrive back at the hotel

Estimated mileage at this stage - 1700 miles

 Stay tuned for part 1 of this trip coming up soon...

A Day With Crater Lake - Part 5 (Sunset and Beyond)

And without further ado, here comes the final installment (with commentary of it all as it happened if you can be bothered reading)...

From around 5.30pm through until 8pm I pretty much rested and played a waiting game other than a few shots here and there.

Waiting for what I hear you ask, well firstly for 8.37pm which is when the sun was due to set.

If you think this is where the day got easier you'd be mistaken, as with the time it takes the sun to set being counted in a matter of minutes I knew that from the time the sun hit the edge of the crater from my vantage point just North of Skell Head that I would have only 10-15 minutes to make the ~8 mile drive back round the North of the crater rim to Hillman Peak where I could catch the sun dissapearing over the horizon with the rolling hills of the Cascades in the foreground.

Sunset shot 1 - Nailed, time to jump in the car and try to get to shot 2 in time...

p.s. around 10-15 of the 30 or so mosquito bites I picked up were all for this one, single shot...!!!

While trying to get myself back round to Hillman Peak to capture what was left of the sunset over the Cascades, the colour of the hills and surface of the water grabbed my attention as I neared Pumice Point, around half way between where I shot the previous image and where I originally planned to shoot from for my second sunset shot.

Gamble time, continue on and hope to catch the sunset at Hillman Peak, or stop, set up the gear quickly, capture a quick panorama from 3 images and potentially lose out on the remaining sunset...gamble, every single time...now would I make it to Hillman in time after shooting this trio of images...???

I can't begin to explain how much I was willing the sun to stay hanging in the sky for just a few minutes more, as the stop off beside Pumice Point had added a good 5 or so minutes to my original plan for capturing the sunset at this iconic location.

Thankfully as I reached North Junction the sun was still hovering slightly above the horizon, but with just under 2 miles still to drive I couldn't know if someone had broken down and blocked the road or some other random bout of misfortune to thwart my best laid plans...

As I pulled the car to a halt at Hillman Peak the sun was just starting to breach the horizon, so with no time for error the tripod and camera were set up and the shutter button got a well earned workout, with the Sigma 10-20mm once again producing that amazing star pattern at f22.

Sunset Shot 2 - In the bag...and time to breathe again...

With the sun dipping over the horizon, and knowing that I had at least one shot in the bag from HIllman Peak (as well as having finally caught my breath again), it was time to get arty and shorten the exposure a little to get a much deeper glow as the sky started it's amazing transition from blue into reds, oranges and yellows.

With the somewhat frantic arrival at Hillman Peak I was completely oblivious to the other 10 or so cars which were parked up, everyone standing in silence either just watching the sunset unfold or capturing it just like me with their camera.  It wasn't until I had shot this frame that I heard another shutter going off!

With the sun now below the horizon it left behind it's amazing light show for everyone that had stayed behind to watch it.

For the 15-20 minutes which followed the sky started to burn with radiant reds, oscillating oranges and yummy yellows (ok enough of the random wordplay), by this point I had the remote trigger hooked up and was able to stand and admire the show as well as every so often making a small adjustment to the shutter speed to capture the amazing show of colour and light...

With the sun having set and dusk well and truly on it's way out the side door too, I made one final drive South along West Rim Drive back to Discovery Point to see if there was any light left to capture above the crater.

Thankfully I was just in time to grab the sky as it transitioned from red to orange to yellow to purple to blue and find finally black as night rolled in and temperatures once again dropped to just a smidgen above freezing.

An almighty day out at Crater Lake, one that will not be easily forgotten so a big tjhanks to the Crater Lake gods for putting on such a stunning show for me to capture and share with everyone (and hello to the park ranger who stood beside me as I shot this final image - who thought I was completely nuts for having been at the park since 4.30am...!!!)

Until next time...

If you want to see this whole lot unfold in a slideshow, then here's the link to the Flickr Set slideshow of the day with all of the images in this thread featured:-

My Crater Lake Trip Slideshow On Flickr

Barry.

A Day With Crater Lake - Part 4 (Evening Approaches)

Here is the penultimate group of images, which were all shot on the trusty workhorse cam, my Sony DSC-R1 which I carried all day along with the Canon EOS-60D with Sigma 10-20mm attached...

Garfield Peak gave a great, unobstructed view over the blue waters and crater wall to Mount Thielsen which towered above off in the distance.

As I already mentioned previously, the views from Garfield Peak are nothing short of spectacular, and narrowing it down to this handful or so of shots wasn't an easy task let me tell you.

This little guy may have been small, but by hell he had one massive set of lungs on him - screaming his head off for what I can only assume was his mum or dad...no idea what he is, no doubt someone on here will be able to answer that question.

When I had descended the trail from Garfield Peak I happened upon this collection of Corvette's that had done a road trip together and stopped off at Crater Lake for the day.

Quite ironic considering the amount of time that I spent in the years gone by shooting cars, meets, shows and events for various European car mags...

The dark structure you see sticking out of the face of the crater is known as the Devils Backbone.

It is is a vertical wall of dark andesite which lines the cliff face and measures around 1000 feet long and 50 feet wide near the top.

The rock has been left standing while all around it the surrounding material has been worn away through natural erosion.

Of all the dikes on the walls of Crater Lake, only one, the Devil's Backbone, reaches from the water's edge to the rim. The Devil's Backbone has thin glassy selvages enclosing a paler, holocrystalline, and somewhat vesicular core rich in cristobalite.

The final daytime shot from this upload is from the same spot that I stood at 4.35am the same morning for the pre-dawn shots, looking out head-on to Wizard Island.

The island always stands out thanks to all the different depths of water which surround it, which help to create a variety of colours against the electric blue the rest of the lake offers up.

A Day With Crater Lake - Part 3 (Afternoon)

With little to no wind around until early afternoon, it gave the perfect opportunity to shoot some of the reflections of the crater walls in the surface of the lakes water.

Until Friday a good chunk of the East rim road was still closed due to snow coverage, thankfully they finally opened it up on Friday as it makes getting from one place to another so much easier when you have two options to drive around the crater instead of just one.

From several places on the North side of Crater Lake there are great views of some of the other mountains in the Cascade range.

Here we have Mount Thielsen.

Here we have Mount Bailey and Mount Thielsen from left to right.

It's not only the North side of Crater Lake National Park that offers great views of some of the other mountains in the Cascade range.

Here we have Swan Lake Mountain which is located to the South East of Crater Lake.

The only main road which is still closed inside the park is the one which delivers you to the top of Cloudcap Overlook, and even though the rest of the roads are clear, you can quickly see just how much snow covers the road up to Cloudcap at the moment.

Also, meet my trusty steed for this current trip, a Ford Fiesta - for our Euro viewers, yes it does have a boot/trunk too...I thought it was a Focus when I picked it up until I realised it was just a "little" bit smaller.

I don't think I could have picked a better day as far as the weather goes, not a cloud in the sky from start to finish and just nice toasty hot temperature without getting unconfortable.

The scenery around the lake is just stunning and it's easy to fire off hundreds of shots as you circle the lake itself, and honestly having been there later in the season last year I would advise going right now when there is still snow around, as it adds so much more to the end results.

It may look like "just another" reflection shot, but look a little closer and you will see the Phantom Ship sitting bang in the middle of the reflection of the crater wall behind.

If like me you do homework on places to shoot from in advance of visiting, then you would probably be a little dissapointed if you got to the Phantom Ship overlook and only had a short range lens in tow.

As you can see there are a lot of trees at this overlook, so you really need to shoot the small island known as Phantom Ship from between any pair of trees to get a nice, clean shot.  For the previous shot I fired from between the left and 2nd from left trees.

From the main visitor centre known as Rim Village, there are some great places to view the lake, and most of it's smaller details, in this case Wizard Island.

Time for another reflection shot, this time of Wizard Island from the South West, shooting from a spot just a few hundred yards North of Rim Village.

The main question that people ask after seeing photographs from Crater Lake is just what kind of filter or post processing has been done to make the water such a vivid blue colour.

The honest answer is none, that's what makes this place so special, not only are you standing on the rim of a huge volcano crater, but the lake that it holds inside is the most amazing colour of blue ever.

Hopefully the above shot will help show you it in more detail than the other pics...

While most of the main stopping spots around the lake have at least a bit of area cleared to make viewing and shooting the lake as simple as possible, in the most part the crater rim is lined with trees, so getting a completely unobstructed shot of the whole spectacle can be tricky for some.

Thankfully from the Rim Village you can take the short walk to the South where the Sinsott Memorial Overlook is located.  From the Overlook you have a clear, unobstructed view out over the lake.

Shot from a short distance into the Garfield Peak trail looking back North towards Rim Village.

There are tour boats which run frequently from the Cleetwood Trail area on the North West of the caldera, and if you look close enough you'll see two of them having just left Wizard Island.

One is heading back towards the dock at Cleetwood and the other is heading off in the direction of the Phantom Ship.

As I made my way through the snow covered fields towards where the Garfield Peak trail starts to rise in elevation I caught the sight of something moving out the corner of my eye.

The deer seemed to have done the exact same thing and I can only assume he/she stood there wondering why someone (me) was crazy enough to be ploughing through the snow covered field in only a pair of shorts and a t-shirt :D

Even thought at this stage I had only ascended around 200-300 of the 970 feet climb up to Garfield Peak, the view out over some of the other mountains in the Cascade Range just had to be soaked in and captured.

The main peaks are Mount Bailey (back left) and Mount Thielsen (right).

This is the uppper section of the Garfield Peak trail which you access from the South side of Rim Village.  It is described as difficult in most of the guides you will find, it's not as difficult as many other trails BUT it is unforgiving in it's continued angle of ascent.

The higher you get the narrower the path becomes and as you can see here the drop off to othe side is quite steep at certain points.

If you look to where the snow is there's a sign to warn of the dangers that lie in that huge pile of snow.

Lets just say that the word "avalanche" had been successfully expunged from my vocabulary before I tip-toe'd on past.

Just before reaching Garfield Peak, the elevation gave a great vantage point from which to shoot back towards Rim Village which sits to the South West of the crater.

There are still two more blog entries to come from my trip to Crater Lake, the 4th will be the remaining daytime shots and the 5th will be of the awesome sunset to round off one phenomenal daytrip...