Travels with Gunther and Kara

There was the most beautiful moonrise over Mount Ranier last evening; Neil’s still working on editing the rest of the waterfall pictures from yesterday’s Columbia River Gorge day trip…but Connie just happened to notice the moon coming up about 2130 last evening. She looked up from her podcast and noticed what our friend Joe Claxton from back during our University of Miami days would call “sky blue pink”. Sky blue pink was his expression for the salmony bluey gray that you get a lot during sunset pictures. 

Anyway; she moved a bit as her view was sort of blocked by the valence on our rear window and then noticed the mountain in silhouette as the sunset and the almost perfectly full moon rising to the left of Mount Ranier.

Naturally; Neil ran out and grabbed about 3 dozen shots…this morning he picked the best of them and did a little post processing and cropping to get it ready to go. The moon is supposed to be absolutely full tonight and the weather is supposed to be clear so he’ll probably try again to see if he can get anything better. He didn’t want to pass up the almost perfect conditions from yesterday evening though…although it wasn’t quite a full moon yet you really need the weather to cooperate as well in order to get photos like this.

It’s really cool…isn’t it?

Anyhoo; that’s about it. Just a short post for today so that I could share this picture. I would like to note for any of our readers who take a particular liking to any photos that we post…the posted versions are lower in quality than the originals are since they’re intended for web display and hence small file sizes are nice. Should anybody like any of these enough to want to use it as a desktop background picture then just let us know and we’ll figure out how to email you a higher resolution version. I can customize the output to whatever resolution screen you might be using.

Cyas.

Monday was a road trip day to the Columbia River Gorge on the Washington/Oregon border. We combined that with the Mount Hood Scenic Loop rather than return along the north bank of the gorge or the freeway. We got up at 0430, had coffee and headed out; it’s about a 145 mile drive down to the beginning of the gorge. Since the drive down was mostly freeway and it was early so there was no traffic…Neil popped off his boot and drove down until we started on the stop and go portion of the day. After that Connie took over and drove the rest of the day…Neil took back over when we stopped for gas shortly before dinner as Connie had been driving for 10 hours by that time and was getting a bit tired.

Once on the Historic Columbia River Gorge Highway (otherwise known as US-30) our first stop was at Chanticleer Point which is owned by the Portland Women’s Forum. The overlook is about 600 or 800 feet above the river and the views are impressive…although as you can see from the picture the early morning fog had not burned off by this time…not unexpected since it was only 0830 or so.

We started up the gorge itself right after this shot…hoping that the fog would continue to burn off and present better views as the day went along. Sure enough it did…and by the time we got to our second stop a whole lot of the fog in the above shot had disappeared. Our second stop was the top of Larch Mountain; about 14 miles east and 3200 feet higher. After parking we had a hike of about a quarter mile each way (Neil was really thankful that he was in a walking boot instead of still crutching along) and maybe 150 feet climb to the overlook; most of the climb was in the last couple of hundred yards and had steps instead of just an inclined trail. On arrival at the summit at 4,062 feet you can see the five of the major active volcanoes in this part of the country. Starting looking almost due north and sweeping clockwise until just a little west of south across the Cascade Mountains. When Saint Helens erupted in 1980 it blew about 1,300 feet off the top of the mountain, most of which flowed down the northeast side of the mountain into the nearby valleys. Looking at the mountain; this shot shows about 6 o’clock on the mountain in the center, the flow was from the 2 o’clock aspect of the volcano and spread out in an arc from 12 to 2 o’clock (north to almost east). Very little of the lava flow zone is visible in this shot. It was still a bit hazy at this point but was the only opportunity we got to see 4 of the 5 peaks…Hood was close and we got some better ones of it later as we drove around it on the scenic loop.

8,363 foot Mount St. Helens 46 miles distant

14,410 foot Mount Ranier 97 miles distant

12,307 foot Mount Adams 54 miles distant

11,235 foot Mount Hood 22 miles distant

and 10,497 foot Mount Jefferson 62 miles distant.

Neil didn’t take a pano of these but the first three span an arc from due north to the right about 30 degrees, Mount Hood is another 100 degrees to the right, and Mount Jefferson about another 60 degrees to the right and just west of south. Quite an impressive set of mountains; a view from the top of Larch Mountain of 160 miles north to south. Each of these mountains is significantly higher than anything else in it’s vicinity; they built up from volcanic activity and are hence solo peaks rather than being part of a large group raised by tectonic activity. The Cascade Mountains surround all of these peaks but most of the rest of the peaks in the Cascades are tectonic rather than volcanic and are generally lower in elevation.

Coming back down Larch Mountain Road we rejoined US-30 and continued up the gorge. Next stop was the Vista House which is not actually a house where we got some more views of the gorge as well as one of the many barges that transit this major northwestern waterway.

Continuing on up the river we got into the really narrow road portion of the gorge and arrived at the first of 77 waterfalls in the gorge. We didn’t see all of them as we were limited by (a) Neil’s ability to only hike short distances and (b) our reader’s ability to look at that many waterfall pictures.

Latourell Falls is a 249 foot single drop fall…like most of the falls on the gorge it’s on the south rim which is almost vertical in most places and is formed by a stream that just falls off the top. While we didn’t hike to the top…it doesn’t look like the stream is more than 5 or 6 feet wide at the top and based on the volume of water coming over is maybe a foot or two deep. Most of the falls in the gorge are relatively low flow as they are formed by streams rather than rivers. Like he does on most waterfall pictures; Neil took both slower (longer) shutter speed shots as well as sets of HDR frames. The slower speed shots allow the water to blur so that the photo has sharp rocks, ferns, etc and blurry, flowing water…they give you a sense of motion in the water. The HDR frames are generally all at quicker shutter speeds so that the water droplets are frozen in the shot…these shots are then combined using the HDR techniques to give a more realistic view of what the eye sees when looking at the fall.

Shortly up the road we visited Shepperd’s Dell Falls, also known as Dell Falls but not officially named. This is a 220 foot fall but only 90 feet of it is a single drop…the remainder is down a steeply sloped bank which is mostly out of sight; the geography of this falls makes it impossible to get a decent photo despite being within about 200 feet of the road. The first shot shows the top of the 90 foot drop and about the lower third of the sloped section; the second shot shows the 90 foot drop and it’s pool. He also turned around 180 degrees and took this almost vertical shot of the rocks they were standing under while taking the fall images.

I think I’ll stop for now; otherwise this post will take forever to upload. I’ll do another one tomorrow with the last (and best) of the various waterfalls we saw as well as Mount Hood and the Bonneville Dam with it’s fish ladders (Connie was really impressed with these).

On the way home we got stuck in Portland rush hour and then got stuck in the remains of a vehicle fire backup on the bridge across the Columbia River. We passed on eating dinner in Portland as we weren’t hungry yet…by the time we were hungry we couldn’t find any place to stop. We finally found an Italian place named Casa Mia in Yelm, WA about a half hour before getting back home. Dinner was Manicotti with Cream Sauce for Connie and Chicken Rosemary Ravioli with Cheese sauce for Neil…both were pretty good but by the time we had salad and rolls we have leftovers which we’ll have for dinner today.

Cyas.

We had a really great (albeit very, very long) day yesterday. I will post later today with our photos but wanted to let everybody know about the excitement as we arrived home. We arrived back at the park about 2100 in the evening after our trek and stopping for dinner and saw the SWAT team vehicle parked in the entrance, two ambulances, a fire engine, 8 or 10 police SUVs, and more guts in bulletproof vests and toting assault rifles than you could count. We parked and started investigatin’ and figgered out that the guy almost directly across from our site had been in a standoff with the cops. He supposedly has cancer, starts drinking about 0700 every day and is falling down drunk by noon, got divorced by his wife, and just lost his long haul trucker job since he failed his recertification……I guess the latter two are most likely caused by the former……anyway he was either playing with his 9mm or tried to off himself. Shot himself through the face, bullet went though his window, broke the window of the rig next door (that couple just got here a coupla days ago) and was sitting on the ground. Sure enough, SWAT shows up in a bit, evacuates the remainder of our row of sites, and everybody is lined up by the office watching the standoff. We arrived about 20 minutes after that. The funny thing was the guy who just checked in yesterday. He and his wife dropped the rig and went off to dinner to come home and not be able to get to the rig and watch wrassling or something. He’s yelling at Vance and Tina (the park owners) wanting to know why they let this happen……as if they have any control over what some nut job does unexpectedly. They had already warned the guy after several other minor incidents that one more and he was outa here. Guess they will be calling somebody to come pick up his rig today. Obviously not the park’s fault of course and the new arrival eventually settled down and realized that. Anyhow, after about another 45 minutes or so the SWAT and ambulances left and we were all allowed to return to our homes. So we got a glass of wine, watched TV for a short bit and went to bed. The cops were here until well after midnight processing the crime scene, no idea when they finally left.
CYAs, more with photos later.

Today was a really, really nice day. Nice cool temps, low humidity and only a few puffy clouds floating by. Neil spotted a nice shot of Mount Ranier so he hopped outside and took a couple. First; setting the stage with a wide shot of the campground , forest, and mountain in the distance taken from just behind the house. Each row in the campground sits about 20 feet lower than the one above so there’s a view from pretty much every site. 

Next he zoomed in a bit and took some frames that he then post processed. First up is a shot pretty much straight out of the Nikon D7000 with just a light crop and standard auto smart fix applied. The second and third shots are both HDR processed; you can see how the mood, colors, and focal points of a shot can be changed by varying the HDR processing parameters. The first one looks pretty close to what his eye saw. You can see how the foreground tree colors and highlights are brought out by the HDR technique. Next time I do this I’ll get him to choose a couple of the really wild presets so you can see the limits of what the technique can do. You can take a raw image taken on a beautiful sunny day like today and turn it into a really stormy, windy version. Neil prefers not to overdo the effect though; you usually get a more natural looking picture by just enhancing the image rather than trying to recreate an entirely different scene. He can’t decide whether he likes the second or third final image better but thinks he’s leaning toward the third one. What do ya’ll readers think?

We’re grilling for dinner; grilled corn, burgers, and Connie’s going to make a salad to go with it. Too bad there isn’t a Red Hot and Blue BBQ franchise up here…some of their potato salad would really be good but we’re afraid to try other places because we’ve never found potato salad anywhere else that was worth eating. Maybe some peach pie for dessert; we’ve got a frozen one in the freezer.

Cyas.

Yea!! Went to the doctor today and had the cast cut off and some X-Rays. They showed that about half to two thirds of the break has new bone growth as expected and the remaining third or so still has not fully healed. Nonetheless; the docs told Neil that at this point he’s better off in a walking boot since the exercise on the foot and associated pressure actually will make it heal faster. Here’s a picture of his new footwear…which he can walk on and can take off for scratching, showers and sleeping. It’s pretty ugly…but at least it comes off and can support weight so he doesn’t have to crutch around any more. The worst part about crutches is you lose your hands and hence the ability to carry anything. Connie’s really happy he can carry his own soda or beer now. 

He has another appointment on Sep 12 and we’re looking at probably leaving here and heading east/south towards Junction City on Sep 18 at the outside. Of course…that depends on the outcome of Connie’s Ob/Gyn appointment next week. She has a minor issue that hopefully will get all taken care of before the middle of September.

After the doctor’s visit we popped by the commissary and filled up on groceries then came home. Dinner was some Crab Ravioli with crab and garlic sauce. It was pretty yummy. Tomorrow we’ll walk up and pay for another month here at Raniervew RV Park site 13.

I think we’re going to head off early Monday morning and take an overnight trip down to Portland, OR to see the Columbia River Gorge. Neil still won’t be able to hike much but can walk a half mile or so at overlooks to see the waterfalls on the river down there.

Cyas.

Although hopefully we’ll have some good news to report after the doctor visit on Thursday we’re still pretty much doing nothing. We were going to go out both last night and the night before before dawn and drive about 20 miles to get out of the city lights to watch the annual Perseids meteor shower…but it was overcast both nights so we missed them. The shower gradually tapers off over time though…and tonight is supposed to be clear so we’re going to set an alarm for 0200 again and see if the skies are clear before heading out if they are.

Just in case we miss them tonight; here’s a composite shot I grabbed from the Astronomy Picture of the Day web site that was taken early Monday morning…hopefully we’ll have our own pictures tomorrow.

They’re past peak tonight but there should still be some to view assuming the weather cooperates. The shower is named because they appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus but the dust particles are actually pieces of the comet Swift-Tuttle which remain behind in it’s orbit. 

Connie went out and got her nails done today and brought home some yellowfin tuna…we’ll sear that and have the mostly raw tuna along with some wasabi and rice for dinner.

Cyas.

Well, it was another day when we didn’t do all that much…we watched the first stage of the Tour of Utah bike race on the internet this morning then sat outside in our zero gravity recliners until 1700. After that we were hungry so we hopped in the car and drove a couple miles down the road to this Mexican restaurant…where we sat at the bar and had a couple of Alaskan Red drafts…along with a taco salad for Connie and a couple of Chile Relenno’s for Neil…then we came home and did pretty much nothing.

I did pull out another couple of pictures from our earlier travels just so ya’ll won’t get bored with the lack of pictures. First is a shot of the Athabasca River in Jasper National Park up in Canada, the second one is the Icicle Creek Gorge over near Leavenworth WA where we were in late June.

Mount Ranier is actually a bunch taller…5,000 feet or so…than these mountains are; in addition to having no foothills so that Ranier has about 10,000 feet of abrupt elevation change as opposed to these up in Jasper that only have about 4,000 feet or so of elevation change for the mountain itself.

Connie’s got a doctor’s appointment tomorrow and then we’ll do who knows what.

Cyas.

Well, Neil had his appointment with the oath folks yesterday and it was like…cut the cast off, take x-rays, see the doctor, get the new cast installed.

The good news is that the broken bone is healing well. The bad news is that it needs another 3 weeks in a non weight bearing cast so we got that put on and then made an appointment for Aug 15. Based on what the doctor saw on the x-rays, he thinks that it will likely be a weight bearing cast or boot after that for another 2-3 weeks…that means that he’ll be able to walk without crutches at least.

Looking at Aug 15 plus another three weeks we’re going to start tentatively planning on leaving here in mid September. We’ve got about 1800 miles travel to Junction City, KS from here…most of it is on the freeway so figure 350 miles a day or so…that means about 5 days of driving to get there. Since our plans are to arrive in Kansas on Oct 6; assuming we leave mid September that will give us a couple of weeks to play around with. At this point we have no real idea what we might do but Neil will start looking at some plan next week while Connie is gone.

We were originally supposed to be in Zion NP from Sep 6-17 then at Moab for Arches and Canyonland NPs until October 3…Zion is about 300 miles out of the way and Moab about 225 so both of those might be out of consideration based both on extra travel time and the difficulty of getting last minute reservations. We’ll look at both of those though as well as look at visiting Salt Lake City and Denver (which would get us Rocky Mountain National Park which is pretty close to Denver)…or alternatively maybe another stop in Colorado Springs depending on what works out. I’ll post a better idea of our plans once Neil figgers them out better.

We’re off to the Elks Lodge nearby for dinner tonight…yippee!!

Cyas.

We were really bored yesterday so since Connie worked Monday and was planning on working Wednesday we headed off for a day trip to the southwestern portions of Ranier National Park.  After stopping on the way to pick up a sandwich from Subway for a later picnic…and after dealing with some “road closed except for local traffic” issues which caused us to reroute our trip a little we arrived at the Nisqually entrance to the park at it’s southwest corner.

Our first stop was at the Kautz Creek for a nice picnic. After that Connie walked down the boardwalk to Kautz Creek where we got our first view (in the park at least) of the mountain and also a shot of the creek running downhill.

After that we stopped by the Longmire museum which was OK…would have been better without crutches. Neil took a picture of the park headquarters while Connie brought the car up as we inadvertently parked a couple hundred yards away from the museum.

Our next stop was Christine Falls; the first shot is the upper portion which is on the north side of the road and the second shot shows the bridge the creek runs under as well as the lower portions of the falls. Connie wasn’t happy that Neil crutched down to the viewpoint for the lower falls but she got over it.

Next was a stop at the Nisqually Valley glacier which you can just barely see in the shot below. It’s the white spot on the middle right side of the photo; the glacier turns about 90 degrees to the right just out of the frame and then goes through the valley between the mountain and the shot location. Unfortunately the valley itself wasn’t visible without a bunch of walking which Neil wasn’t up to.

After that we stopped by the main visitor center…here’s a shot of the snow field to the right side of the summit itself; This field is just over the top of and out of sight behind the Nisqually glacier in the above shot; we were about 70 degrees further around the mountain for the snow field shot. The little dots you can see in the middle of the frame are mountain climbers on the way to the peak…at this point they’re about 4 or 5 miles from the visitor center and still have another 5 or 6 miles and 4000 feet or so to the peak. The most common route to the top is over the top of the snowfield then take a left turn and go behind the gray rock outcropping at the left side of the frame; then continue up to behind the summit and ascend the valley wall on the back side.

On the way down from the visitor center we spotted this little waterfall with some snow covering immediately adjacent to the road, Neil thought it was really cool.

Our final stop was at Reflection Lakes; where one can see the reflection of the mountain in the lake surface when the weather is calm. Unfortunately it was a bit windy so no reflections for us today. There is a bit of color reflection but none of the typical mirror like reflections one sees when the weather is calm.

After that we headed home; it was about an hour and a half  drive. We stopped at Domino’s and got a pizza for dinner then headed home for the evening.

Tomorrow we’re headed off to the hospital for an X-ray on Neil’s foot and hopefully will get a good report on it. We’ll let you know tomorrow.

Cyas.