Bull of the Woods Wilderness

August 10, 2018 in Adventure, Photography

After scouring the map for who knows how long, I finally found the perfect spot for a long weekend of camping, hiking, paddle boards, and good eating with friends; the site was Elk Lake. It's a primitive campground on the very northern edge of the Willamette National Forest, but it was quiet and small with no system for taking Reservations. I was worried about the first come first served nature of the campground, so I set out a day early to guarantee to get us a great spot.

I'd never been to this area of the Cascades and was pleasantly surprised with the beauty of the region. To get there you drive on one of the rockiest forest roads I've traveled for what felt like an eternity, but as you come around and get the first glimpse of the lake, every bump became instantly worth it. As far as lakes go, Elk Lake is on the small side, but what makes the area so unique is how the lake is nestled into what looks like to me, a glacier-carved valley.

It's quite refreshing to settle into a new beautiful area were good conversations and adventure fill the day. We ventured out many times on the paddle boards and kiyaks soaking up the sun and dipping into the lake to cool off when necessary. Not far from the campground is Battle Axe Mountain, somehow our group collectively summoned the courage to climb this ancient volcano as the view from our campsite was quite impressive and daunting. It was incredible to gain some elevation and put some perspective on where we were with stunning views of Mount Jefferson, Mount Hood, the Three Sisters and Three Fingered Jack.

My favorite part of the whole trip was getting up before dawn on our last day, taking our watercraft out onto the lake, and waiting for sunrise in the crisp morning mist.

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Steens Mountain Wilderness | Day 3

July 15, 2018 in Adventure, Camping, Hike, Photography

My last day had come, and I had a lot of travel ahead of me. After a quick scare of thinking I lost my wallet and ability to buy fuel was over, I planned to head over to the hot spring for one more soak. As I was packing up, I was greeted by a friendly pilot as he flew overhead waving. I was only halfway through my soak when I noticed how fast the wind had picked up and that the clouds rolling in were quite intense. Then overhead I heard some of the loudest thunder I'd ever heard in my life and thought it might be a good idea to get moving.

Like my drive out to the Steens, I wanted to add a destination to visit on my way home. So I set a course to the Painted Hills and got moving. I'd never been to the painted Hills before so I was pretty excited. I only learned that they were in Oregon a few years ago, though I had seen pictures before that, I always thought it was somewhere else. By the time I got there, five hours later, and driving through a rather large storm system, I was greeted with a punch in the face 108-degree dry heat that stopped me in my tracks. It felt like I was perspiring every drop of water I drank before it had the chance to hit my belly. Doing my best, I pushed through hiking most of the trails in the park. With a little energy left over and not wanting to go home just yet, I decided to swing by Smith Rock to photograph the sunset.

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Steens Mountain Wilderness | Day 2

July 14, 2018 in Adventure, Camping, Hike, Photography

Hearing my alarm clock that early after a night of astrophotography was nearly torcher, but one peak out my tent of the light creeping over the eastern horizon was the mental cup of coffee I needed. The soft red and orange light that bathed the mountains around me was incredible. Again, I found myself running around taking way too many pictures trying to capture what I was seeing. After the sun had come over the horizon, the feeling of being tired crept back, and soon I was back in my tent catching a few extra Zs.

It didn't take long at all for the sun to blast out the desert before me with its bright light and heat. I stuck around as long as I could capturing my experience, but I had other plans for my day that I was pretty excited about. Not more than a few miles away was a hot spring I wanted to check out for a quick soak before heading up to the top of Steen Mountain for a hike. It being over 100 degrees out, it was no surprise that I had the hot spring to myself. Something I think many people forget about is how our bodies feel temperatures differences relative to themselves. So, if you are hot because the air around you is hot and you get into cold water, you get cold in the water, and the air feels even hotter. The inverse is true too, that spring was really hot making the ambient air around me feel so much cooler than before.

Refreshed from my soak, I started my journey to the top of the mountain, but getting up there was going to take much longer than I expected. I had to nearly drive all the way around to the back side of the mountain before I was able to even think about driving up. I didn't mind the drive though, I find the desert landscape so beautiful and enjoy being in it, but that's easy to say while blasting AC! The Steens Mountain Wilderness is stunningly beautiful; It's one of my favorite places in Oregon. Once at the top, you can see the evidence of glaciers carving their way to the bottom cutting and ripping themselves down. If you're not afraid of heights, there are also many opportunities for some magnificent cliffside views along the way.

Once to the top and at the end of Oregon's highest road, I started my hike back down to Wildhorse Lake. I got there just at the right time, as I was hiking down, everyone else was hiking up, giving me the lake nearly to myself. As I walked in, a giant cloud came over the area providing some much-needed shade, but graciously let in beautiful light when I was ready to start taking pictures. I took a quick dip in the lake then moved on towards the other end of the valley to see what was hiding from me. What I found blew me away, the scene before me felt like I was in the Alps or New Zeland or something. I had no Idea that this sort of landscape was in Oregon. Initially, I had planned on making camp on the top of the mountain somewhere but opted to rush back down to the playa for one more night on the desert floor.

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Steens Mountain Wilderness | Day 1

July 13, 2018 in Adventure, Photography, Camping

I've wanted to get down into the Steens Wilderness since I first learned about it. What I was excited about was how you could get out onto the dried lake bed, the Alvord Desert, and how it looked like a foreign landscape from another planet. The only time I've ever been to a similar area was at Badwater Basin in Death Valley. Though the desert was located in Oregon, it was still a six-hour drive away. When an opportunity presented itself for a long weekend, I knew exactly where to go.

To get down to Desert, I opted to take the longer more scenic route. I wanted to revisit an area of Oregon I had passed through on my drive from Colorado around the Warner and Guano Valleys. I had a late start leaving at around 10 AM, I usually like to get moving as early as possible, but I need to take Brittany to the airport that morning. This put me in a different mindset for the days travels, my only goal was to get to the desert before sunrise, so I took it pretty slow stopping and exploring whenever it felt right. You see I usually push it pretty hard on travel days, but leaving late and not wanting to sit around in the hot desert sun for too long waiting for good light, I took advantage of the extra time getting there.

I ended up making it to the playa around 6 PM, this was over two hours away from the sunset, but I was just east of a rather large mountain, so I was only an hour or so away from being in the Steens shadow. Driving out onto the playa was a surreal experience. My sense of movement and speed were off with nothing around to provide perspective. The desert is seven miles wide by twelve miles long, looking at the GPS, I did my best to camp right in the center getting the furthest away from the edges as possible. After setting up camp, I waited for the sunset and was floored as the sky exploded into color. I took more pictures than what would be considered reasonable, but every time I turned, I felt an overwhelming compulsion to capture the beauty before me.

If I had to guess, I would say that there were less than 100 people around in a 100-mile radius. Though I was excited about the solitude, It also meant that there was going to be nearly zero light pollution for seeing the stars. I've admitted before that I don't participate in much astrophotography, but I'll never pass up an excellent chance to practice. The only downside was waiting till nearly midnight for the last of the suns light to leave the horizon. You see, the playa was a giant reflector, and the smallest amount of light gave you a clear view of what was around you since there was no moon. After capturing the stars for as long as I could push myself to stay up, I headed to bed to rest up; I had an early call for sunrise in a few hours.

Little Adventures: The Beach

June 30, 2018 in Little Adventures

With a full day ahead of us and beautiful weather encouraging us, Ridley and I made our way to the coast to spend the day playing in the sand and chasing waves. With a full bag of his construction trucks, we set to work building our construction site with hills, pits, and roads connecting them all. At one point, Ridley found a crab pincher that he thought was pretty cool; I had to agree!