I’m always up for a bit of adventure, but on this occasion I started feeling like maybe I’d bit off more than I could chew! I mentioned a couple weeks ago about the park roads being closed – an issue I imagine will only become more prevalent with the impending budget cuts and staffing changes – but I was so excited about this idea that I didn’t let that stop me this time. I decided to go as far as I could by car, and then switch to my bike. That got me to the trailhead, which is where the real fun started. I perhaps brought more weight than I needed, but I knew there were several stream crossings ahead of me, and the shot itself would need to be taken from the water (and I didn’t want to get cold), so I had a lot of clothes with me and my waders. The ride in gassed me a bit, mostly because I was excited and not taking my time, and then the walk in about kicked my butt. This particular falls is off trail, and as I mentioned, requires a few stream crossings to get to… all well and fine in the daylight.
Anyway, I made it back to the falls, which local waterfall guru Brian Solomon has nicknamed “Blue Hole Falls” – it has no official name – in time to get setup and think through the lighting before it got completely dark, which is when the work begins. For this scene I shot multiple images for the foreground, and blended in my favorite lighting efforts. The sky I had to shoot back out of the valley because there’s just not enough visibility to do it justice anywhere back in Walker Valley. The way out is where the true adventure began, though. I’ve been back to these falls numerous times, a handful of times before sunrise, but still “dusky”. This was pitch black. When you climb out of the bowl, you have no choice but to climb through rhododendron thickets, which I found out can be very disorienting! I got my bearings though and obviously made it out just fine. The walk / ride out was much more pleasant than the way in!
Funny enough, there was barely any snow on the ground anywhere, except down in this hole where the falls are. I’m not complaining though, as it really adds to the snowy scene! I’ll take snow in the right place over snow all over the place, at least when you’ve got to cover so much ground to get to it!
More next week!
Dan
–Dan Thompson