During a brief respite between drizzles and squalls over still ice-covered Picture Lake, blue skies and beautiful sunset light paint a different picture over and upon the famous angular profile of nearby Mount Shuksan, in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington.

We had one free evening in Vancouver and, never having seen this wondrous view from Picture Lake, we decided to make a dash for Mount Baker. Weather conditions looked promising as we wound our way up forested valley road toward Mount Baker's prominence, but then the unpredictable nature of alpine weather intervened. Clouds swept in, seemingly in minutes, and torrential downpours accompanied most of the rest of our drive ascending the mountain. I feared a complete washout, but thankfully, the storms lessened and left some windows toward clearer, more distant vistas. Minutes later the next drops began to fall.

A half hour or so after I took this shot, some lower clouds caught up to us and threatened to make the drive back down the mountain a tedious one for tired eyes in thick fog. Part way back down the mountain, the combination of dusk, mist and dense northwest forest had created quite an air of mystery. Just then, the hulking form of a huge bear emerged from the thick undergrowth and moved purposefully across the road in front of us before disappearing once again through a curtain of firs. In the thick fog and low light, even at a distance of probably only thirty or forty feet, I could make out no detail other than the bear's enormous form and dark fur. Had I been just a little more tired, or the fog just a bit thicker, I might have wondered if I'd seen a sasquatch!

Anyway, even though its been months since this trip, its been one of those stretches for me with no time for photography, so this post is actually still from a quick bit of processing done on my old laptop. I'll have to dig into this and process it a little better at some point, but its been so long since I've been on flickr, I just felt like posting what I had on hand.

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A gorgeous spring sunrise silhouettes scattered cypresses like Rorschach blots among the tranquil waters of Caddo Lake, near the amusingly named hamlet of Uncertain, Texas.

The greater Caddo Lake area is reputed to be largest cypress forest in the world, and there aren't many better ways to spend the pre-dawn twilight than weaving through the maze of narrow channels overhung with moss-draped branches before breaking into a more open area like this one to meet the first warm light of day.

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Tags:   Caddo Lake Bayou Uncertain Texas Louisiana Sunrise Morning Dawn Nikon Landscape photobenedict Beautiful Big Cypress Bayou Cypress Tree Forest Trees Spring Green Warm Light Rays Shadows Spanish Moss Moss Boat Boating Handheld Reflection Reflections Slough River Canal Pond Southern Swamp

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A quick trip to the Outer Banks (OBX to folks around these parts) in search of some delicious fresh seafood turned even better when the westward cloud bank somewhat surprisingly pushed south and broke apart, leaving a nice path for sunset light to burst through and put on quite a beautiful show over the iconic Bodie Island Light Station, in the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina.

This lighthouse and its surrounds may be among the most photographed places in the Carolinas, but during the cold season you can have the place to yourself, or nearly so, most sunrises and sunsets. It's absolutely worth the extra fleece layer or two. I only wish the light was set come on a little earlier before dark (this is about 20 mins after sunset, and the light still wasn't on). Like a mariner from the age of sail, I would have been very heartened to see the lighthouse's rotating beam, and I really would have liked to have a sunstar from that light in this image. But, alas, 'twas not to be.

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Tags:   Bodie Island Light Station Lighthouse Dusk National Park Outer Banks North Carolina Manteo Nags Head Bodie Island Cape Hatteras National Seashore Nikon Landscape Sunset photobenedict Beach Seashore Atlantic Ocean Salt Marsh Marsh Boardwalk Long Exposure Singh-Ray Clouds Pink Color Trees Spring Kitty Hawk Albemarle Sound

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Anglers drift on cold autumn morning near the shore of Silver Lake, one of the most idyllic little roadside mountain lakes in the Eastern Sierra, near June Lake, California.

Tags:   Silver Lake Eastern Sierra California Nikon Landscape Sunrise Travel Morning Dawn June Lake Mist Autumn Fall Sierra Nevada Reflection Reflections photobenedict Mountains Lake Water Aspens bestcapturesaoi elitegalleryaoi

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The rushing river reveals yet another amazement within the vast Yellowstone caldera complex, revealing ancient (and perhaps future) eruptive activity of almost unimaginable scale--in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

Talking with folks I met while traveling this past fall, I found myself wondering: Can a gorge that's marketed to tourists as the "Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone" actually be a little underappreciated among the varied wonders of this fantastical area? Maybe so, as one rarely hears it mentioned prominently when discussing all the amazing wildlife, active volcanic effects and dramatic vistas that cluster in the region encompassing Yellowstone and Grand Teton. Regardless, I immensely enjoyed the colorful earth tones expressed so beautifully in this sharply eroded area still steaming in places from remnant hot springs.

The overlook trails along each rim were delights to walk, particularly in the morning and evening hours, when the softer and changing light would seem each moment to emphasize a subtly different earthtone of this terrestrial palette.

The most commonly seen images of this canyon focus on the lower falls, which plunge forcefully over 300 feet from the more forested heights into the lower reaches of this vivid gorge. Lacking substantial interest in the sky over the falls this evening (or the next morning when I went back to walk the rim trails some more), I tried to focus on the canyon's hues and almost abstract forms looking other directions, here using a three-second exposure with the soft orange/pink backlight that remained shortly after sunset.

The prevailing theory of this gorge's formation is itself quite interesting as, at first glance, the canyon looks to be composed of very different material than the volcanic rock types which seem to cover much of the rest of the region. It is thought that hydrothermal activity was once much stronger here, strong enough in fact to morph the usually much harder and darker volcanic rock into this softer, more colorful and more easily eroded material now exposed by the relentless rush of the Yellowstone River.

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