Its still a tradition

Last Saturday Del & I had quite an adventure... we returned to Mt. St. Helens for what has become our annual trip. It was great; we saw meadows, crazy bogish meadows, more meadows, pinky-like vistas, another meadow and climbed up, up, up. Our intention was to visit four lakes that are all very close to one another: Fawn, Elk, Hanford & Forest. Well... on that day our adventure only brought us to Fawn Lake. It was amazing, though. This Sunday we headed back to Mt. St. Helens, back to the lakes, back to one of the most beautiful places around. We used our newfound navigational skills to zip up to the Fawn Lake trail head via Forest Service roads and then continue on to the remaining three lakes.

Macro Wishes

We really did zip up the Forest Service Roads... and the place we happened to stop at... the Fawn Lake Trail Head (thanks GarmGarm!). While Del was trying out a "lori shot" I took some dandelion shots. I am naming this pic "macro wishes" because I have sooo many more macro skills to learn. My alias may be "macro supergirl" but don't let it fool you... I am still pretty clumsy with my macro shots. I do have a very, very keen interest in macro shots and love 'em, love 'em, love 'em.

The View from Jun Fork

We kept walking along the Forest Service road until we reached the next breathtaking locale: Jun Fork (unlike the extreme Pinky-focus of last week's trek, this week's Way Points were dedicated to dear little Junior). Just our luck, the clouds had mostly lifted and you could really really see the crater of Mt. St. Helens. Amazing isnt' it? I took the pic below using my UV filter & Cokin 2nd filter... I liked the way it turned out and didn't make any subsequent editing at home. Enjoy.

Daisies were in abundance along this part of the trail, but you can tell that the season is ending because the ends of the blossoms are starting to wither. So sad. They are beautiful though, and so very cheery. Oh, and, uh, for the record... I like daisies, too ;)

Vic'try for Washington

Woo-hoo! We made it! After a bit of off-roading, Del led us to Elk Lake! When we got there I just found a nice look out spot and enjoyed the scenery. I tried to take some macros of "death berries" but not even my camera would touch them... I ended up dropping my camera in the ash! OH NO! OH NO! OH NO! Luckily, I just received a blower thingymabobber for my birthday, so I was able to get most of those fine little particles out the way. Phew. I figured I would just call it a day for my little macro filter and switched back to my 18-55mm. Here is my pic of Elk Lake. It is a little crooked, but I don't know how to edit that, yet ;)

After Elk Lake we hit Forest Lake. I didn't take any pictures there due to super harsh lighting and rather tight quarters. No problem, though, I have a really beautiful mental picture still, and Del risked certain danger and managed a great shot that I can reference. OH, you can too: look here.

We literally turned around and BOOM, there was Hanford Lake. Wow. At this point, Del and I went our seperate ways. You see, this way we end up with different pictures... plus, I think sometimes he just likes to explore on his own. Now that he has the trusty walkie-talkies it makes it even that much easier for this kind of stuff. Wow, I just over-explained my picture. Ok, so the pic below is from the lookout above Hanford Lake.

While crazy monkey macro super panda dude was at the base of the lake, I stayed at the look out and spent the entire time messing with my star filter. Yes, the entire time. I had to crop this one because I kept getting the corner of my filter or my fingertips in the shot. BECAUSE there were stupid little mosquitoes all over the place, and they seemed to know just when my 10-second timer would go off and bite my ears/eyes/cheek/hand/you name it. The extreme irritation caused me to move a bit, so, basically, it took awhile to get some clean shots. I am calling this one Someday Sunshine because, someday, I WILL be able to use my star filter and someday I WILL be able to correctly photograph sunlight. Someday, sunshine... someday....

Well, this marks the end of my pictures. It does not, however, mark the end of the adventure. After this spot we still had to make it down the mountain. It was an amazing walk down. I wish you could have seen it -I have never experienced that kind of beauty before. The sun was setting on the right hand side, bright red and orange skies along the ridge line turned into pink hues in the sky falling behind the rolling hills of blue. Mount St. Helens was in front of us, with Sagittarius shining so brightly above it. The moon was rising on our left hand side. I had never watched a moonrise before - very cool. We stopped a few times and Del was able to capture some interesting and thought provoking shots.

As always, thanks for checking out my pictures and sifting through all of my over-explanations. I love lamp.