[kiliki]

Love the eclipse photos. I watched in perfect conditions from SE Missouri (a pivot from TX, which we'd booked but was cloudy) but didn't take photos. Unlike in 2017 we brought a white sheet and this time saw the spooky cool shadow bands right before.

[Nancyann]

On the Kelley Creek trail today. Thanks to the Volunteers of Washington for building this trail.

[GaliWalker]

[Chief Joseph]

Shuksan

[GaliWalker]

Yesterday, around sunset, in the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia.

[GaliWalker]

[GaliWalker]

I walked through a "prescribed" burn, so intentional, on a hike today. It wasn't a pleasant experience. As I stopped to take a documentary photo - the first one pictured - I saw a splash of pink. I guess if you look closely enough, you can find beauty amidst ugliness.

Misty burnt forest

Lady's Slipper

[Chief Joseph]

I took this photo 14 years ago, name these falls..

[Gil]

Milky Way over the North Cascades

Eerie encounters in the night ... A friend and I walked up into the North Cascades last week to spend the night and get some star photos. We were rewarded by a nearly horizontal Milky Way over a ridge across the valley. Kurt had set his alarm for midnight and got up before I did. By the time I got out into the bitter cold, clouds were moving in, and Kurt was heading back to bed. But I decided to wait to see if the clouds would fade. When I was pretty sure they would, I walked through the snow by starlight up to a little ridge above the basin where we were camped. We had climbed up there for the sunset, so I knew I would have a fairly unobstructed view. Walking alone in the mountains at night is always a sense-heightening experience. The mind can jump at things that go bump in the night, even when no real danger is present. If you are not using headlamp, you are thinking carefully about the ground you are on. That night the snow was steep and crusty as I moved up past sparse firs and larch, focused on how my feet were working. Just when I got where I wanted to shoot from, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and my body went into high alert. Something was there in the dark watching me. I couldn't see it or hear it, but I knew it was there. I stopped and pulled my hood off so I could hear if anything approached. I slowly scanned the area around me on the ridge, perhaps 100 feet across and rising up into the gloom. I saw nothing, so I turned on my headlamp. The high beam shot through the night, an unwelcome intrusion into the peaceful dark. Still I could not find whatever was causing this intense feeling. So I tried to settle down to take a few photos. But the feeling of being watched, of imminent danger, wouldn't go away, so finally I picked up my tripod and headed back to the basin. I told Kurt of my experience, then took a few more photos near to camp and went to bed. A few hours later, we got up for the dawn and ascended to that area of the ridge to see if there were any signs of what had been there that night. And there they were, the unmistakable tracks of the enormous, blood-thirsty, razor-clawed, needle-fanged, terror-inducing ... pine marten.

[lookout bob]

This deer was wading down the middle of the Satsop River at Schaeffer State Park....

[kite]

Hammersley Inlet, Nine Orcas T90s & T99s

[GaliWalker]

From a misty day in Shenandoah National Park (May 11, 2024). Not much in the form of views due to the mist, but the vibrant spring greens were magical.

[zephyr]

[GaliWalker]

I have a remote with a range of 70m.

[rbuzby]

Shuksan May 11 2024

Nooksack Falls. Long arm over the fence shot.