Pacific Northwest

Rainier Ray

A light ray beams over Mt. Rainier with Indian Paintbrush and Lupine Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington Willie and I had been wanting to visit Mt. Rainier in the “spring” (August) for quite a number of years but we finally made it happen in 2016. With a wet winter we had high hopes that the wildflower blooms would yield carpets and carpets of flowers. Unfortunately we found only patches of flowers. While hiking above Myrtle Falls we came across this field of lupines that caught our eye. Mixed in here-and-there were little splashes of Indian Paintbrush, which provided a nice contrasting color to the red and purple lupine. We knew this would make a great spot for photos, if only the clouds would cooperate. We had initially setup our tripods to face south-west, towards the sunset, since Mt. Rainier was completely cloudless and there were a few patches of clouds facing the Tatoosh Range. Rainier had a different agenda in mind. It’s commonly known that the volcano peak makes its own weather and sure enough, within minutes beautiful clouds had formed around the mountain. When the sun hit them, it sent a giant light ray through the sky, and turned the clouds a beautiful orange, and then purple and pink before fading away. What a sunset! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 18mm, f/13, 1/4 sec, ISO 250

2016AugustCascadeCascade RangeD800Edith CreekGolden GateGolden Gate TrailMountMount RainierMount TacomaMount TahomaMountainsMt RainierMyrtle FallsNPSNational ParkNikonNikon D800Pacific NorthwestParkRainierSkyline TrailSummerSunsetTacomaTahomaTatooshTatoosh RangeWashingtoncloudsflowersfoggardeningglowlandscapelightlight beamlupinelupinesnatureriverskystratovolcanostreamvolcanoweather machinewildflowers