Oregon Cave flowstone feature, frozen waterfall or cascading mineral formation

A tall column of cascading flowstone in Oregon Cave National Monument. The interior of a solution cave forms as water containing carbonic acid drips through the ground and dissolves the limestone or marble. Then continued dripping water leaves behind the calcium carbonate mineral as the water evaporates. The mineral builds up over several centuries to create features like this flowstone that looks like a frozen waterfall.

The original wall of a cave is referred to as speleogen, while the mineral deposits added later are called speleothems. So, this flowstone is an example of speleothem formation.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Great American Eclipse, Annular eclipse, October 15, 2023, from Crater Lake National Park

 Rick and Bob chose to go to different places to observe the annular solar eclipse. Bob went to southern Utah, to Natural Bridges National Monument. Rick went to Crater Lake National Park, in Oregon. The forecast in Oregon was for cloudy skies, so Rick went there with the possibility of not seeing the eclipse at all in his mind. He drove into the park around 6:30 a.m. and got to the rim of Crater Lake, where there were already huge crowds of people hoping to see the eclipse, too. The cloud cover had an interesting pattern, though, so he took some photos of the clouds over Crater Lake and the rising sun over the lake, as well. 

The time arrived for the eclipse to start, but the cloud cover hid the event from us. Rick got nice photos of the lake and sky, but no eclipse. Snow was on the ground from an early storm, but the park service had cleared the roads in time for the eclipse. Rick got in his truck to warm up and kept checking the time to monitor the progress of the eclipse. Then he saw a couple in the next car over get out, put on their eclipse glasses, and start pointing at the sky. That encouraged Rick to get out and have a look and there it was! Through breaks in the cloud cover, you could see the eclipse in progress. This photo was taken at the peak of annularity. The cloud cover ended up adding drama to the image.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Great American Solar Eclipse from central Oregon

The solar eclipse during totality, with a couple of small stars shining below and to the left of the sun. Outside the frame of this picture, Venus and Saturn were also visible. Rick viewed the eclipse from central Oregon from Beech Creek Summit, near John Day, Oregon. The summit is actually north of the small town of Mount Vernon, Oregon, along Highway 395, but John Day was the biggest town in the area and it's where he camped. His fellow eclipse viewers at the summit were from parts of America, like California and Washington state, plus Germany, and Ireland. The diamond ring effect that you see just before totality starts and just as it is ending can't be compared in a photograph to the actual experience of seeing it. The best I can say is that when you see it in person, the little diamond sparkle is still bright enough to blind you. The corona itself is very bright and seems to display threads of light that don't show in typical photographs that well, but it also makes witnessing the eclipse in person a more dramatic experience than viewing a photo of it.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Sheep Rock at the John Day Fossil Beds in Oregon

While visiting Oregon to get in position for the Great American Eclipse, we visited the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, which consists of three units. One of those units is named after this feature, Sheep Rock. The line of totality included this area, with the center line not far north from here. We went through the visitor center looking at many paleontological displays that prove the scientific value of this area and why the National Monument designation was well-deserved. The other two units are the Painted Hills and Clarno. The river is named for John Day, but he didn't discover the fossils, nor did he even explore this far upriver. The person considered responsible for establishing the scientific value of this area was Thomas Condon. The visitor center in the Sheep Rock unit is named after him.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Kalmiopsis Wilderness, lizard using Sierra cup as a tanning bed!

We backpacked into the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in Oregon several years ago. After the first night, we decided to hike around a little bit without our packs to explore the area. Rick left his Sierra cup on a rock after breakfast so that it could dry out while we were away. When we came back, we saw this head sticking out from the edge of the cup. We made a point of making the lizard feel comfortable enough to stay put, while we got our cameras. While we were gone, the sun warmed the metal enough for the lizard to find it appealing for itself, so it had its body presed as flat as possible on the inside of the cup. Rick moved around until the glare from the cup shifted away from the lizard's head, so there would be enough contrast.

Th Kalmiopsis Wilderness is named for a rare memeber of the heath family of plants. It was discovered in the 1930's and is believed to have survived the last Ice Age in this part of Oregon's mountains. The wilderness also has the Chetco River flowing through it, which is used by river rafters and kayakers.

Here's what the lizard looked like from behind. Really trying to soak up the warmth.

Remember, it's not just a photo, it's a story!

Multnomah Falls, Oregon's tallest waterfall.

Multnomah Falls is the highest waterfall in the state of Oregon. For the traveler, it is very convenient to see it since it's right next to a major road. You don't even have to get out of your car to see it, but, of course, you'll want to get closer. The bridge that crosses the creek was built in 1914. There's a trail to the top of the falls that Rick hiked and got the view from the brink looking down at the people on the bridge, the Multnomah Falls Lodge and the parking area where his car was parked. This part of the Columbia River Gorge has many other waterfalls along the road and even farther upstream from those, if you're willing to do some hiking.

Because the falls are on a north-facing cliff, it is always in shade. That creates a bit of a challenge for photographers to get the right degree of contrast and exposure to bring out the details. Northern Oregon and southern Washington often have cloudy weather as well, adding a little more to the degree of difficulty. This image is the composite of three images that were merged together to capture more of the detail of the scene. The camera Rick had in 2006 was a 6 megapixel Konica Minolta camera, so the three images minus the overlap from the merge process gets to about 14 megapixels. The merging process allows a photographer to make images that are much greater in image detail than a single image.

Remember, it's not just a photo, it's a story!