Lupine Abstract © 2010 Bo Mackison
While looking through my files for a few photographs to print for my upcoming art show, I accidentally popped open the catalogue of the photos from the Pacific Northwest trip I took earlier this summer, and this abstract of a blue lupine opened on my screen. I was rather taken with the deep purple and blue botanical abstract on the green background.
It seems like only a few weeks ago I was knee deep in bright blues and greens, and now, suddenly, the world is shifting, taking on different shades – more muted, warmer colors — yellows and oranges — replacing the brightness of summer’s peak. So I wanted to share a reminder with you of this past early summer as we pitch headlong into autumn.
Blue lupine photographed on the side of the road in North Cascades National Park, Washington. Mid-June, 2010.
Blue Lupine in the Cascades © 2010 Bo Mackison
Mother Nature makes it really hard to drive on the back roads of Washington state. Every few yards along the sides of the roads are massive spreads of blue and purple lupine. When she wants to make it especially difficult to concentrate, she adds a few white or pink lupine into the mix. Occasionally there are yellow ones, too.
I finally pulled off the road to get my photography fix for the morning. We were driving from Seattle to Vancouver — shouldn’t have been all that difficult, seeing as it is only a two hour drive. But we were already a day behind our plans, since we had taken the turn off I-5 the morning before for a spontaneous detour through the North Cascades. But even being off schedule wasn’t a good enough reason to not stop. So stop we did.
The lupine were definitely worth the delay.
Golden Rock @ 2010 Bo Mackison
Close up view of Ruby Beach as high tide is approaching. I had to hurry to capture this little golden rock on the weathered log, reminded me of a little golden egg resting in a nest, before the waves started to pool around my ankles.
Even so, by the time we had walked north along the beach a hundred yards and back, we were cut off from the path to the car. Nothing dangerous, and there were lots of people still walking the area, but we all had to either walk across a fallen tree that functioned as a (very narrow, slippery) foot bridge or wade through the Hoh River at the spot where it enters the Pacific. We chose the route of wet socks, wet hiking boots, and a story to add to our ever increasing pile of memories.
Ruby Beach is on the Pacific Coast in Olympic National Park.
Hoh Rain Forest © 2010 Bo Mackison
One of the more popular places to experience on a hike in the Olympic National Park in Washington state is the Hoh Rain Forest. It is one of a handful of temperate rain forests in the Northern Hemisphere that are in a protected area. Much of the forest in the surrounding region has been logged in the last century, and many areas still show the scars of uprooted trees. This makes the Hoh Forest that much more sacred.
The forests proximity to the Pacific Ocean brings an average of 140 inches of annual rain to the forest and mist adds another 30 inches each year. A visit to the Hoh in the summer is the driest choice – only four inches of rain falls in June on average. We walked the trails for several miles and though there was evidence of moisture everywhere, we had only a few drops fall on us.
This is surely one of the greenest places I have ever seen. Bright green everywhere I looked.
View from Dungeness Spit © 2010 Bo Mackison
North of Olympic National Park and the city of Port Angeles, Washington is a National Wildlife Refuge called the Dungeness Spit. The refuge’s main attraction is a 5 1/2 mile long spit that stretches into the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Puget Sound. At high tide, portions of the spit are only 50 feet wide and are occasionally breached by the tides. The bay side of the spit is a calm harbor, and provides safety for baby seals and other sea creatures.
In the background are a few of the peaks in Olympic National Park. Some have glaciers, some mountains still have snow as it is still early in their “summer season.”
The spit is a wild place to walk, first a half mile walk through old growth forest hanging with mosses and filled with ferns, then a scramble down a cliff, and finally out on the spit for more scrambling over rocks and huge driftwood logs. What a majestic bit of wilderness!
Diablo Lake in North Cascades National Park © 2010 Bo Mackison
We took an unexpected side trip to the Cascades. As we were driving from Seattle to Vancouver, we saw the Cascades Highway and had to go check out the National Park. We ended up spending the night, getting a bit away from our planned trip. That just makes the trip that much more of an adventure, that much more fun!
And our family collects visits to the National Parks and Monuments the way other families collect coupons.
Mt. Rainier from Paradise © 2010 Bo Mackison
We were lucky. “The mountain is out,” they kept telling us as we were getting ready to drive to Mt. Rainier National Park from Seattle. And so yes, we drove to Mt. Rainier National Park and the skies were clear and all the mountains were snowy and shining in their glory. It was the first day of good snow melt, and the waterfalls and rivers were all rushing and gushing!
We entered the Nisqually Entrance, arriving about 9 am, then drove up towards Paradise. We stopped way too many times to count for photographs, also for a stroll through the lobby at the historic National Park Inn, a hike to Christine Falls, then lunch at the lovely Paradise Inn.
After checking out the Paradise Visitor Center (very modern, very cool — as in temperature!) where I photographed the above shot of Mt. Rainier, we hiked the Box Canyon trail, took another several hundred photos — the mountain was OUT! — and then gawked and gawked as we walked the Grove of the Patriarchs Trail (giant trees, boardwalk, icy rushing river from snow melt!)
We finally exited the park on the Mather Memorial Parkway in the northeast corner of the park about 9 pm and headed back to Seattle — exhausted but happy! Good thing we were exploring in mid-June and taking advantage of some of the longest days of the year.
Paradise is the name of an area of Mt. Rainier NP which is approximately at 5,400 feet on the 14,000+ south slope of Mount Rainier. Evidently Paradise is the most popular destination for visitors to Mount Rainier National Park, it was jammed with people, but we didn’t stop there long.
There was too much to see elsewhere. There were plenty of people playing in the snow at Paradise though, as seen in the photograph.
in the Sonoran Desert
The Organ Pipe Cactus is one of the giant cacti, second in size only to the more iconic Saguaro. Instead of having a single trunk with branches, the organ pipe has 6 to 20 stems all growing from a central trunk. It will typically grow about 15 feet tall, though specimens have measured more than 20 feet in height.
Its habitat is limited to Sonora and Baja California, Mexico, and southwestern Arizona. In the United States, the largest number are found in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument located near the Mexico/Arizona border.
Saguaro National Park
It’s not too often I get the opportunity to photograph the desert, especially the desert after a heavy rainfall that leaves large puddles of standing water with perfect reflections of prickly pear and saguaro cacti.
We visited one of the more isolated areas of the eastern part of Saguaro National Park. We hiked the Mica View Trail, which offered great views of the Tanque Verde Peak and Mica Mountain, but I was most fascinated by the puddles and spent a fair amount of time sprawled on the damp desert floor taking photographs.
Staring into the burning desert sun. Desert heat
rises, sears my soul, the searching soul, seeking light.
I sink into the sand-earth, the desiccated cactus roots cannot support me.
Be not distraught. Reach out. Stand upright.
The sun drops off the edge of the world, night slips in quietly, settles,
A star shimmers and
another.
I have journeyed long,
watched sunrises and sunsets, and the ascents and descents of many moons.
And now a multitude of stars alight the heavens, milky streams of light, and with faith
I await the return of the sun.
~~~~~~~~~
This is a contribution to the poetry challenge being run by the Abbey of the Arts: Entering the Desert’s Fire. In the invitation to share a poem Christine writes:
I invite you this week to write a poem about your own invitation to enter the refiner’s fire – in alchemy lead is transformed into gold through heat and this becomes a metaphor for the human soul. What is the lead within you ready to be transformed into something treasured?
