Ok, here’s yet another example of why you should take your camera out to a favorite spot during different times of year, weather patterns, and/or times of day. In the case of these two images, one was captured in mid-spring (June) 2020, and the other was captured in mid-late winter (December) 2020. Both were captured during the morning hours. Notice the difference in water flow and vegetation amount and color.
Ok, granted, the cameras and lenses are different, but the location – right off the side of Westside Road, about a mile away from the Nisqually Entrance (Mount Rainier National Park), is the same.
Copyright Rebecca L. Latson, all rights reserved.
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A telephoeo view of the top of the lower falls of the Yellowstone River, Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming)The powerful turbulence of the lower falls of the Yellowstone RiverThe lower falls of the Yellowstone River in an autumn snowstorm.
Hey,it’s #FunFactFriday ! If you’ve ever visited any of the view areas along the lower falls of the Yellowstone River in Yellowstone National Park, then you’ve probably noticed a green streek of water at the top of the waterfall.
As you know, the water from the riverbed, when it falls over the edge of the cliff, becomes a mixture of spray and turbulence, much like when water flows over a shallow, rocky portion of a riverbed, streambed, or creekbed. So, there’s a notch in the Yellowstone riverbed, right at the lip of the falls, extending down a little bit past the edge. This notch allows for a short, deeper flow of the riverwater to maintain its beautiful, clear green color before ultimately changing to spray / turbulance as it falls over and then outward from the cliff edge.
Myrtle Falls, Mount Rainier National Park, 9/30/2020Myrtle Falls, Mount Rainier National Park, 9/23/2021Myrtle Falls, Mount Rainier National Park, 9/6/2016
I know I’ve written this before, and I tend to hammer it in to the readers of my photo column on the National Parks Traveler. But, I’m not going to stop hammering it in, so here we go again: it’s always a great idea to revisit and rephotograph a favorite national park spot, because – depending upon the season, time of day, and weather – things can look quite different from the last time you visited. If you are using a newer/different camera, the level of detail can look quite different, as well.
Take these shots of Myrtle Falls in the Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park (Washington state). Each of the three photos were actually captured in September, from late summer to autumn, and during the morning (I didn’t realize they were all captured in September until I looked at the file info). However, these images were photographed in different years (2016, 2020, 2021) and under different weather conditions. Makes quite a difference, doesn’t it?
The first image shows a sort of veiled mountain view that I photographed with my Sony a7riv. Smoke from a wildfire had wafted in that morning, when the previous morning was crystal clear. The second image is the most recent, captured the day after official autumn and conditions were perfect for a clear photo of everything and was photographed with my Fujifilm GFX100. The last photo was taken during a rainy day when The Mountain was completely hidden from view by fog/mist/low-hanging clouds, so I focused on the waterfall rather than the gray background with my Canon 5DSR. And the really nice thing is that during each of those photo sessions, I had the place all to myself (I may forget what I ate for breakfast the other day, but stuff like that, I tend to remember). Most people up there at that time of year tend to want to sleep in, I guess.
Anyway, look at these images and compare them to one another, then take my advice and revisit your favorite spots for more photos.
Copyright Rebecca L. Latson, all rights reserved.
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The Weeping Wall along Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park (Montana)
Ok, I’ll admit the image above is nothing to write home about, but I posted this because one of the quiz questions is about the Weeping Wall in my latest quiz and trivia piece published in today’s edition of the National Parks Traveler. It’s all about waterfalls in the national parks. Click on the link to test your knowledge about these sometimes-ephemeral, always beautiful cascades of water you might spy just off the side of the road or along the trail in a national park.
To take the quiz and read the trivia, just click on the image above.
Copyright Rebecca L. Latson, all rights reserved.
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An Autumn Snowstorm Over The Lower Falls, Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming)
There are a gazillion images of Yellowstone National Park’s Lower Falls, but I posted this one to talk about capturing snowfall in an image.
There’s this sort of Goldilocks and the Three Bears choice when capturing a decent snowfall image, imo: too slow of a shutter speed means you’ll get white streaks (unless that’s what you want), too fast of a shutter speed means you’ll barely see any snow at all, and just the right shutter speed means you’ll see little white dots or flakes of snow, like you probably originally wanted.
In this shot, I’d just hiked down a steep, zig zag trail to reach the brink of the Lower Falls. There was nobody else there because the snow was beginning to come down hard. It wasn’t a beautiful, feathery-flake kind of snow. It was more like almost-but-not-quite freezing rain, so the snow flakes were small but numerous, and were beginning to fog up the scene a little. I got this shot, cropped it to get rid of all the melted snow droplets on the lens filter front, then began the steep hike back up to the top of the trail. It was snowing so heavily by then that I could barely make out the waterfall.
The Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River is quite impressive, however you manage to see it. I didn’t realize at the time, that there were quite a few more trails to different viewpoints. The next time I visit this park, you can sure bet I’ll ferret out all those other viewpoints. One can never have too many shots of this waterfall, right? 😉
Kepler Cascades, Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming)
It’s Waterfall Wednesday! So here’s a little falls courtesy of Yellowstone National Park. Kepler Cascades is a 150-foot tall, multi-tiered waterfall just off the roadside along Hwy 89, south of the Old Faithful complex. It’s not visited much, probably because most people are zoned in on reaching Old Faithful and surrounding environs. If you look on Flickr.com, though, you’ll see a ton of Kepler Cascades pics more or less the same as what I have here (so I guess I’m not that original, although I can claim I took this particular photo, so it’s *mine*).
As a side story, I had returned to my rental vehicle after photographing the cascades and continued driving for some miles when the low-tire light came on. That made me a little nervous, but I remembered seeing a small gas station right outside of the lodge area of Old Faithful, so I turned the SUV around and started heading back. I was worried something would happen before making it to the gas station, so I was quite relieved when I saw the sign for Kepler Cascades, because I knew I was nearing my destination. As it was, I had to purchase an old-fashioned (i.e. non-digital) tire gauge and valve caps because I’d forgotten to pack both of them into my luggage. Must have been mercury retrograde or something, because usually I remember to pack my own tire gauge and valve caps just in case something like this occurs. Car rental companies are not the best with upkeep, unfortunately.
Now I have my own travel wagon that I keep maintained, with tire gauge and valve caps always in it for my photo travels. Hah, car rental companies!
A Little Waterfall Along Baring Creek, Glacier National Park (Montana)
It’s Waterfall Wednesday, so how about a little waterfall along the cold, turquoise-tinted water of Baring Creek, flowing beneath the arched bridge on Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park.
I last visited this park in 2017, when I captured the image above. No, it’s not Baring Falls – that one is much larger and further down the trail. I don’t really know why I didn’t hike the entire trail to the waterfall, but I didn’t. Next time I am in Glacier, I’ll hike down to get a different waterfall composition for a future Waterfall Wednesday.
Rainbow Falls, Outside Of Stehekin, WA, in the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area
Did you know the North Cascades was so named after its numerous cascading waterfalls, including Rainbow Falls, pictured here, located within the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area portion of the North Cascades National Park Complex? This two-tiered waterfall is a total of 390 feet tall and is one of those must-sees whenever one visits the small community of Stehekin, located about 5 miles, give or take, from the waterfall.
You can learn more North Cascades trivia, and also test your North Cascades knowledge with the latest quiz and trivia piece I penned for the National Parks Traveler.
To take the quiz and learn more about the North Cascades National Park Complex, just click on the image above.
It’s #WaterfallWednesday ! So here’s a bevvy of waterfalls, and if you click on each photo, you’ll read an interesting fact or two about each.
This image was captured during a winter in Zion National Park, in Utah, so the water is more of a trickle or a track, indicating it’s falling down the side of a hanging valley. According to the placard I read: “Side valleys began to form at the same time as the Virgin River Canyon. But, the main stream downcut faster than its tributaries, leaving them hanging high above the canyon floor. The mouths of hanging valleys are a likely place to look for waterfalls; they also indicate the river’s former level – a measure of the stream’s carving power.”
This image was captured after a bit of a sweaty trek for me, carrying a heavy camera pack (as per usual) and a heavy tripod, working hard to match the pace of my two new friends who insisted I hike with them to Fairy Falls in Yellowstone National Park, because of a bear frequenting the area. I enjoyed the hike more than the falls itself, because I had a pleasant time visiting with the very nice couple.
According to the NPS site page for this park: “Fairy Falls, 200 feet (61 m) high, is one of Yellowstone’s most spectacular waterfalls. From the trailhead, walk 1.6 miles (2.6 km) through a young lodgepole pine forest to the falls. You can continue 0.6 miles (0.97 km) to Spray and Imperial geysers, which adds 1.2 miles (1.9 km) to the hike.” I was too pooped to hike to the geysers, so I and the couple turned around after a short looksee at the falls. I saw that waterfall in October, so the falls wasn’t as “spectacular” in terms of water volume as it probably is during the late spring and early summer.
A waterfall that I *did* think was pretty spectacular was Gibbon Falls in Yellowstone National Park. There is a large parking lot for this next-to-the-road sight with several different vantage points you can walk to along a nice, wide, paved trail. If this is what the waterfall looked like during the autumn, I can only image how powerful it must look during times when the water volume is higher.
According to author Lee H. Whittlesey in his book Yellowstone Place Names: “Gibbon Falls is believed to drop over part of the wall of the Yellowstone Caldera, which is thought to be 640,000 years old.”
Marymere Falls in Olympic National Park, is reached via a very popular, less-than-2-mile hike on a trail that starts behind Storm King Ranger Station, a hop-and-a-skip from Lake Crescent Lodge. This long, narrow waterfall seemingly nestled within a bed of green ferns reminds me of a whiskey bottle, with a long, tall neck and a shorter, fuller, bottom. To get there, you cross a couple of neat log bridges then handle some steep stairs up to two different viewing areas.
If you ever have the opportunity to spend a few days in the remote community of Stehekin, Washington, located at the head of Lake Chelan in Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, then take a hike (after visiting the Stehekin Bakery) or take a bus ride to popular Rainbow Falls. The waterfall cascades 312 feet down to Rainbow Creek, and there are a couple of vantage points from which to view this misty falls – near the bottom of the falls and a short hike toward the middle portion of the falls. It’s one of the most popular stops for day trippers to Stehekin (aside from the bakery, that is) 😉
Courtesy of the little waterfall at Sunbeam Creek, just off the Stevens Canyon Road heading up toward Paradise at Mount Rainier National Park. As you can see, it’s good to return to the same scene during different seasons to photograph the changes. The first image was captured in July, which is analogous to spring in the upper elevations (hence the healthy water flow). The second image was captured in September. The summer might have been hot, resulting in less flow, and/or the high elevation from whence this creek originates might aleady have been freezing over. True summer, with warm, sunny weather, doesn’t often last very long in the mountains.
All images on these posts are the exclusive property of Rebecca L. Latson and Where The Trails Take You Photography. Please respect my copyright and do not use these images on Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat or any other business, personal or social website, blog site, or other media without my written permission. Thank you.
You can reach me at rebeccalatson@wherethetrailstakeyou.com
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