oHo's favorite photos

This was taken while hiking the Lake Ann trail near Mount Baker with my brother Tim on a very wet day. We were on our way back when this dead branch against the background of the other trees and moss caught our attention. The branch and some of the trees are Douglas Fir but I believe the tree in the background on the far right is Mountain Hemlock. In any case the photo catches something of what our forests are like.

This was taken on a hike with Tim at Winchester Mountain in the North Cascades near the Canadian border. The day was mostly cloudy and wet with occasional sunshine and we were on the trail on the shoulder of Winchester Mountain looking ahead toward High Pass (above the photo at the top of the slope) with the Silesia Creek valley to the right.

Last November my wife and hiked to Lake Twenty-two, a small alpine lake in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. The day was beautiful but the low sun and short day meant that the sun never hit the lake and meant that we had to hurry to get down again before dark. This photo was taken on the east side of the lake and shows a part of the steep north face of Mount Pilchuck, on whose northern shoulder the lake lies.

Taken on the east side of the Cascades near Highway 2 and west of Leavenworth, Washington. The Aspen, which provided all the color in this photo, were brilliant this year.

Taken on a recent hike to Blue Lake. When we arrived at the lake the gentleman and his dog were sitting on the rock across the water and later we ate our lunch on the rock where he was sitting. The yellow trees are Alpine Larches.

If you follow the North Cascades highway east through Rainy Pass and Washington Pass there is an overlook at Washington Pass just before the road descends from the mountains to Mazama and Winthrop. This photo was taken at the overlook and show Snagtooth Ridge across the valley through which the highway runs.

Racehorse Falls is not far from where we live and in the foothills of the North Cascades. Racehorse Creek, the creek on which the falls is found feeds the North Fork Nooksack River. The falls is named for the shape of a horse's head which can be seen to the left of the falls in this photo. When we visited the falls last, at the time of this photo, there was not a lot of water coming over. At snowmelt time, however, the falls are much more spectacular than this.

This was taken from the train when we took the Alaska Railroad from Whittier to Anchorage and looks out over Turnagain Arm while the tide was out. The trip was wonderful, relaxing and cool after a hot day of hiking, though I'm not sure other passengers appreciated our unwashed state.

Photographed along the Harding Icefields trail in the Exit Glacier area of Kenai Fjords National Park, these willow catkins were still fresh at higher elevations. Fizgig has identified these as Salix bebbiana, Bebb's Willow.