The mountain itself gave us only the briefest glimpse of itself, and by the time we stopped the car to jump out with the cameras, had gone back under its cloudy blanket. Alas, I have a couple of wonderful people pictures, but have promised...
One jagged peak of the Tatoosh Range snuck clearly and brightly out of its cloudy cover to give us a glorious view as we made our way up the road to Paradise. When we got well into position to take pictures it was sneaking back in again. (Hubby has this thing against just stopping in the middle of the road for photo ops.)
Yes, there is a mountain up there--or is this the one that is yes, there is a glacier down there. Up, I think... No, I change my mind. This one looks down to the glacier, hidden behind the fog.
Now for the mundane--the patterns of life in the deep snow. Driving the road to Paradise is something like travelling through a roofless white tunnel. The road is plowed daily. If it weren't, the summer opening of park facilities would be well delayed because of impassable roads. Paradise did hold the record for the most snowfall in one season (1,122 inches, set during the 1971-1972 snowfall season and passing the 1000 inch mark at least three other times.) The slice of snow at the side of the road is above our heads in most places. To get the first photo, we had to back off across the road.
Here is the pattern that the snow blower leaves carved in that bank.
Here is the pattern of tracks of some kind of equipment that helps to keep things open. I love finding odd patterns in mundane things.
Along our hike we met many happy faces, including this guy. What is it actually? When snow piles very high on a small tree it will eventually bend over with the weight. A mound is formed--and some of these mounds take interesting shapes. The tip branch of the tree forms this guy's nose. The sagging of the snow forms his mouth. Someone graciously left him with eyes courtesy of their trekking poles. From the side, he looked a bit like a cartoon shark in one of the books at the library.
This guy got his visage all on his own.
And finally to the tiny details. This is cropped from a shot just like Paulie's.
We had fun! But then again, we always have fun when we get to share the mountain.
4 comments:
These are compelling photographs. Nothing about any of them is mundane. You've given my day an added blessing of pleasure with your pictures.
Great photos! I thought you were going to send me copies of the two of me. . . I should have taken more of you two since the snow was falling and the sun was directly on you and the photos is no good. I will send it to you tho. I am mad I didn't take more of you.
I ache all over but I sure loved that snow and trying to snowshoe. I can't believe I did not get one photo of a tree well.
Thanks for the adventure!
wow what awesome snow photographs, i always try to take snow photos and fail miserably.. these are just stunning! what kind of camera do you use?
I had two cameras along on this trip--my new Casio Exilim (EX-Z75). This is the camera my hubby got me for Christmas. It is 7.2 Megapixels with a 3X zoom lens. I think that all the pictures I posted were done with this.
My Kodak Easy Share 7590, which I have been using for two or three years, has 5 miegapixels and a 10X zoom. It is pretty bulky--the reason for the new camera.
The Casio is only about a half inch thick and fits in my hip pocket. There are only a few things that the Kodak does that I miss with it. One, of course, is the zoom. I do love to zoom in on things, but I think with the higher megapixels it may compensate. I have not done a direct comparison yet.
The Kodak also has an old-fashioned viewfinder along with the LCD screen, and it rotates pictures that you take in portrait position automatically. It also has a feature where you can take a series of snaps and it saves either the first five or the last five of the sequence.
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