A while back I wrote that I tend to fall in kind of artistic hibernation in winter. It is hard to push yourself out of warm cozy home into bitterly cold of winter wind.
This year I did it! I pushed myself out. I started going into the mountains and taking photos. I bought enough clothe to keep myself relatively warm even in wind at temperatures well below freezing.
So, this year I can show a few winter photos starting with a few simple ones.
One of the advantages about going backpacking and staying in one place is that you’re walking the same surroundings over and over and you can see landscape in different light. And you start appreciating light in a whole new way…
As I wrote earlier when we entered Core Enchantments on the second day of our trip we saw the area between Leprechaun Lake and Perfection Lake in the afternoon light and it look gorgeous. Unfortunately we have not captured much of it. So the next day in the afternoon I went back from our camp to Leprechaun Lake to photograph in the afternoon light.
The air was as still as possible. There were no ripples on the water. So reflections were perfect.
By the time I got to Leprechaun Lake it was late afternoon. The sun light was getting warmer turning golden larches into bright orange shifting further and further towards red. Leprechaun Lake was absolutely still and reflections were perfect. It was taking photo after photo but I felt they were falling short of the beauty around and the actual feeling of being there.
We woke up to quite morning. First thing first: locate the camera that I left for the night to photograph star trails. Next onto photographing sunrise, breakfast could wait just a little bit.
It was freezing but no wind at all, absolute stillness. Good opportunity to photograph reflections in Snow Lake. The water level was incredibly low exposing steep banks of the lake that typically lay deep under water.
The textures created by sand and dust deposits brought here by water then dried up when the water level dropped were fascinating. We could see golden larches at higher elevations. They seemed so close.
The tops of the mountains were lit up pretty nicely. I wish there were some clouds too to add to the light show but the sky was as clear blue as it could be.
After photographing sunrise we made breakfast from freeze-dried bags. Once both our creativity and bodies were fed we packed up and moved out toward Enchantment Lakes.
As I wrote in the previous post our first camp was next to Upper Snow Lake. By the time we made and ate dinner it was dark. And there is not much to do when it is dark in the wilderness. So we settled for a sleep.
I was excited: my first night in the wilderness. I may have been too excited to get any sleep. Or maybe it was just too uncomfortable. I had too much clothe on and was too hot, I had no pillow, the mattress was blown too stiff, the air was freezing and freezing air was causing runny nose. (Only by the last night of the trip I found the right combination of all the things to get a good night sleep.)
Anyways, I could not sleep. I was just lying trying to get some rest. At about 1am I, finally, gave up, got out of tent and decided to enjoy the night a little bit. And I was rewarded with Aurora Borealis. It was not the biggest I’ve seen but it was fun.
Once that was over I decided to photograph star trails. It took me about 15 minutes of trial-and-error to find Northern Star – the center of the spin. Once I found it and figured out the right exposure I set my camera off on the longest exposure I’ve ever had – 1.5 hours.
The good thing of being in the wilderness is that I could leave camera up for whole night and nobody would steal it. So, once I started exposure I went back to the tent and finally got some sleep.
Day 3, Noon
With a spare tire that I put the day before I could not get far, since it was not regular size. I needed to fix that problem first. The closest town – Big Pine – was over an hour away, especially with spare tire with a limit of 50 mph.
The drive to Big Pine turned out pretty interesting and picturesque. From there I decided to drive along Sierra Nevada mountain range south and re-enter Death Valley from west. That way I would have entered the valley from every road available.
The road was very nice. If I were to go to Eureka Dunes again that’s probably the way I would approach it. And for convenience I could even stay in Big Pine for a night.
The drive to Big Pine and then driving west of Death Valley turned out very picturesque. Here is a road from Eureka Dunes with snowy Sierra Nevada in the distance:
Here is a nice roller-coaster ride to the west entrance to Death Valley with mountains in the distance hidden behind dust storm:
And here are the curves of road descending into Death Valley with its colorful mountains (click on the image to see it larger):
Yesterday we had a beautiful white morning in Klahanie (where I live). Everything was covered in snow. While jogging I discovered a part of a trail with trees covered in snow. When I got back home I put my camera backpack on, got tripod and took off back to this place to take a photo.
Klahanie Trail after Snow Storm
As I mentioned in the previous post I’ve recently visited Palouse during winter time. I watched for this opportunity for a while. Everything seemed to fit this time. But the day before I left for a trip I checked road conditions and they were icy. One city – Spokane – alone saw more than 200 car accidents as a result of cars sliding down hills on icy road. And what Palouse is famous for? Right, hills!
That made me consider staying home instead. But my photo-biological clock was set already. I woke up at 2 am – the time I planned to leave to get there for sunrise. I thought it might be a sign that I should go. And I went. Turned out that the roads cleared up and driving was as safe as it could be. I finally could see Palouse in white – what a pleasure.
The morale of the story: sometime it is worth taking a risk. And be safe on your next trip!
Road to Steptoe Butte
I’ve dreamt of seeing Palouse in white for several years but every winter when it was snowing in Palouse there was a snow storm at mountain summits that I would need to cross to get to Palouse and those summits would be closed. Finally, this year I caught a forecast of snow in Palouse while it was not snowing at all on the west coast of the state of Washington. This meant that I would have an opportunity to get there.
There was only one day on the forecast between snow and rain with possibility of sunshine. That’s the day I wanted to be there.
I woke up at 2am, checked driving conditions, put clothe on, re-checked equipment and took off for a long drive to Palouse. Four and a half hours later I was standing on Steptoe Butte looking at Palouse in white. I was there just in time for a gorgeous sunrise. It was like a Christmas dream come true.
vitali prokopenko | fine art 