Walking through fields of lupine up in the high country is one of my favorite things. It’s especially nice when it’s not wet and overgrowing the trail. Then your boots get wet … and usually your socks. It can be uncomfortable the rest of the day. Fortunately, this was dry and away from the trail. Another close up “panorama”.
Most of the white flowers here are American Bistort with one or two strays mixed in.
This was taken on the High Divide trail in Olympic National Park.
I have been working for the last several months at putting together my hiking memiors. The title is “60 Years of Hiking in the Olympics”, and yes, that is how long I’ve been doing hikes and backpacks into the park. Since I always had a camera with me on those trips, I have spent hours going through all the images and selecting ones to include. One of the surprises was when I realized that there were several that I had taken with the idea that I might “paste them together” to create panoramas. That was difficult to do back in the film days … digital processing eventually made it as easy as pushing a button. These images are ones that I had never taken the time to paste together … so were new surprises for me. The one above is of Heart Lake on the approach to the High Divide. Below is the view of the Upper Hoh River valley from the middle of the High Divide, looking southeast. Mt Olympus is just to the right of the image … I had created the panorama of that one earlier, but missed this combination. (These were taken with an early digital camera … but before there was easy to use software to stitch them together.)
And when (if) the book is available as an eBook for easy download, I will provide the link.
This was taken a few years ago when I was more able to wander around the high country. We were on our way up to the High Divide and then down to Hoh Lake and back. (Note that the pack doesn’t have a sleeping bag or other items strapped to it … a sure give away that this is a day hike.) We were camped down in the basin (which requires a hard to secure reservation for camping) and were enjoying the scenic highcountry without having a heavy pack. The 7 Lakes Basin is a frequent camp location to those hiking the High Divide loop trail, which provides some of the most stunning views of Mt Olympus and the central Olympics.
I took this image a few years back while hiking around the High Divide, camping in a spot just off the trail. There wasn’t much water around (1/2 mile + away), but the view made up for it. The High Divide is the most popular backpack in the Olympic National Park … these days you need to make a reservation months in advance … and even then good luck getting one of the limited number.
Below is a view south from the High Divide trail about a mile or so from the camp above. Mt Olympus is the snowy peak on the left of center, Mt Tom is the snow peak just right of center. The Hoh River valley is between the trail and those peaks.
I enjoy taking my photographs and using them as a starting point for other art forms. I have done colored pencil images and line drawings, mostly. While experimenting with various tools in Photoshop, I found an Edge Detect tool that I like a lot. This image is a combination of Edge Detect and hand drawn edge enhancement (for instance, along the ridgelines). Below is the original image looking across the Hoh River valley to Mt Olympus from the High Divide trail … from a campsite on the eastern edge of the trail near Heart Lake. We had a spectacular sunset and a great sunrise to wake to.
