Mt. Rainier and Wildflowers from Paradise Park

The clouds you can see at the base of Mt. Rainier, quickly grew and completely covered the mountain.  Shortly thereafter, the rain and snow commenced!  I wasn’t able to capture any images with my large format camera because it was simply too windy.  I suppose this offers inspiration for a return visit to Mt. Rainier next summer!  Below is an image I captured the night before at the tail end of the 6 hour drive to Mt. Rainier from Our Pacific Crest base camp of Bend, Oregon.

Sunset over the foothills of Mt. Rainier.

Great colors and textures made it well worth while to stop despite the fact that I was frantically looking for a camp site and I was almost out of daylight.

The morning of my Mt. Rainier visit I awoke before 4:00AM and began hiking.  I traversed the Mazama Ridge in the dark and along the way I saw two red foxes and countless deer.  Not finding any remarkable scenes along this park of Mt. Rainier National Park, I continued uphill back towards Paradise.  I passed through the Van Trump area and the Edith Creek Basin which is pictured below.

Edith Creek and Mt Rainier

Weather reports from the visitor center predicted rain and heavy clouds for the next two full days in the Paradise area so I  hastily retreated to the Columbia River Gorge area where the weather forecast was more promising.  I got some great new stock photos from the Coulumbia River Gorge National Scenic area but they will have to wait for another blog entry.

Mt. Rainier is truly an amazing mountain and  the National Park offers much more than just the mountain.  There are countless waterfalls long the way as well as the gorgeous Tatoosh range, and the Grove of the Patriarchs and it’s 1,000 year old cedar and Douglas Fir trees.  Below is Sunbeam Falls, a whimsical little waterfall along the roadside near the Paradise area.

Sunbeam Falls in Mt. Rainier National Park

For more information about the remainder of my Mt. Rainier road trip, and some great images from the Columbia River Gorge, Double Mountain Brewery, and Elowah Falls, please check back soon!  Thanks for reading and if you would like to license any of the images in this blog entry, please visit our stock photography site, Pacific Crest Stock.

Happy Trails,

Mike Putnam

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Hiker in the "Blue Basin" located in the John Day area of Eastern Oregon

Troy has been working particularly hard at capturing images from some of Central Oregon’s newer trails.  In the Crooked River Ranch area there are several great new trails worth checking out.  These new trails can be preview by visiting the following link to our Pacific Crest Stock website.  Pacific Crest Stock.  The following image was captured at one of these new trails.  There are many more like it viewable at our website!

Hiker in Central Oregon River Canyon

If any of our readers have suggestions as to where Troy should go for his next great High Desert image, please leave a message at the end of this blog entry!

Thanks for Reading,

Mike Putnam

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The day started off like many other photography mission days. It was a beautiful Spring morning, and my loving wife had given me clearance to spend the entire day hiking, biking, skiing or doing whatever I wanted to do. I noticed some great cloud formations stretching across the northern skyline, so I decided to take my trusty friend into the desert canyons near Crooked River Ranch to take pictures. I had scouted these areas several times earlier in the year and I was calculating that the deserts should be pretty close to reaching their peak (i.e., as green as they get and full of balsom root flowers). Based on the positioning of clouds, I figured my first stop should be Steelhead Falls on the Deschutes River. This deep desert canyon has lots of interesting hoodoo formations and traditionally good flowers about this time of year. Add in a good collection of cumulus clouds overhead, and its pretty hard to beat.  Unfortunately, when I hiked into the waterfall, I found that the balsom root and Indian paintbrush were still on the early side . . . and, there was a fierce wind moving through the valley, which meant that I had virtually no chance of capturing any decent photographs of flowers anyway (because they would all be blowing around like mad).

Photo of balsom root near Steelhead Falls on the Deschutes River. This photo was taken on an earlier trip when there was no wind.

I did the best I could with the situation at hand, and then decided to move a few miles farther downstream to the Camp Scout Trail. The Camp Scout Trail is a recently opened section of trail that descends through a steep, rugged canyon to the lushy confluence the Deschutes River and Wychus Creek. I’ve been there a few times since it has opened, and I think it’s one of the best desert hikes in Central Oregon, especially in late-April and early-May. After a level half-mile section, the trail opens up to dramatic, big-Western-style views.

Mike Croxford and I hiking at Camp Scout Trail earlier in the year . . . when my camera was still alive.

As I followed the trail downstream from the fork, I was pleased to see that the balsom root flowers were much farther along in this area than at Steelhead Falls. I scouted around and took about a dozen photographs that I was very excited about, but then the wind started gusting again and it became clear that I was not going to get any more good photographs from this area. Rather than hiking the entire 3-mile loop, I decided that I would wait and bring the family back here a different day for a more extensive photographic experience.

Deschutes River and cliffs from the Scout Camp Trail. This photo was taken earlier in the year, before the big balsom root bloom and fatal camera incident.

I hurried back the Jeep, and then drove a few miles down the road to some other new trails along the Crooked River canyon.  The Lone Pine Trail, Otter Bench Trail, and Opal Canyon Loop Trail are located just past Crooked River Ranch. Like Steelhead Falls and Camp Scout Trail, they offer incredibly scenic views, but parallel the Crooked River instead of the Deschutes River. My plan was to hike a short ways up Lone Pine Trail for a few quick photographs and then come back and mountain bike the 7-mile Otter Bench/Opal Canyon Loop network. 

Crooked River Canyon from the Lone Pine Trail. This photo was taken earlier in the year, during happier times for my camera and I.

I left the Jeep and started up the Lone Pine Trail on foot, oblivious to the tragedy that was about to happen. At the first good viewpoint of the canyon, I dropped my backpack and unloaded my camera and tripod as I have done hundreds of times before. I started to compose the shot through my viewfinder, but then realized that the photograph I really wanted to get was going to require me to move a few more feet to my right . . . which, unfortunately, was going to put me dangerously close to the edge of a 200-foot cliff. I nervously inched toward the edge of the rock knowing that the cliff dropped off immediately behind me and to my right. With barely enough room to turn around on, I leaned over to check my lens and saw a bunch of debris clinging to its center. I carefully maneuvered around the tripod leg and started to reach for my backpack to get a clean lens cloth when a surge of wind came gusting up the canyon. The strong wind caught the lip of my cap and as I reached both hands to my head to keep my cap from blowing away, I saw that the wind had also caught hold of my camera.  I looked back just in time to see my dear old camera and tripod go somersaulting off the cliff.

It was like one of those moments you see in the movies where everything is moving in super slow motion.  Imagine a slow frame-by-frame scene with me on top of the cliff lunging for the foot of my tripod as it tumbles out of view and my mouth opening wide to scream “Nooooooooooooooooo!” That’s pretty much how it happened.  After witnessing the unfathomable, I just dropped to my knees in disbelief and hung my head . . . unable to look up. After a few moments of dumbfounded silence, I rolled to my side and then crawled over to the edge to see if I could catch a glimpse of my camera’s corpse on the rocks below. I expected to see it and my tripod in a mangled heap of carnage at the bottom of the cliff, but I didn’t see it anywhere below.

Always an optimist, I decided that I would gather up the rest of my gear and then try to find a way down to the bottom of the canyon to re-collect any pieces of my camera gear that were still intact. It didn’t take long for me to locate a game trail that worked its way down a steep rocky outcropping and into the rattlesnake-infested area at the bottom of the cliffs that I had been standing on a few minutes earlier. As I approached the scene of the crime, I noticed a piece of carbon fiber legging that once belonged to my tripod. A few feet from that piece, I found the rest of my tripod. The tripod was no longer usable in any way, but all things considered, it had actually taken the fall quite well. One piece of the leg was missing and the ball head had broken off upon impact, but otherwise, it looked much better than expected.

My next task was to try to find the camera. Given that the camera is much heavier than the tripod, I figured that it had probably ricocheted farther down the slope. After a few more minutes of searching, I spotted my camera wedged underneath a twisted section of sage brush about 50-feet below the place where my tripod had come to rest. The entire right side of the camera had split open during the fall, and my $1500 lens had disengaged itself somewhere during the tumble. I knew there was no way that my lens would be salvageable, but in trying to give myself at least one small nugget of hope, I thought that maybe, perhaps, through some small miracle, that I might be able to at least re-use my polarized filter, which was attached to the lens before it fell. I searched high and low, under each and every brush pile looking for my lens, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Using my best CSI skills, I backtracked and zig-zagged the entire area between where I found the tripod and where I found the camera, trying to cover every imaginable scenario. Just as I was about to give up, I caught a glimpse of that signature “L series” red circle. At nearly the same moment that I spotted my lens, it dawned on me that the lens cap was in my pocket before my camera blew off the cliff, which of course, meant that there was no way the polarized filter was going to survive the tumble. Sure enough, the filter was scratched beyond belief.

I then thought about all of the nice photographs that I had taken earlier in the day at Steelhead Falls and Scout Camp Trail, and let out a little smile thinking that since I had found my camera, I would at least be able to get those photographs off of the memory card.  But even that small feeling of relief was short-lived because as I looked closer at my camera, I realized that the memory card had also ejected itself sometime after impact.  I spent another 30 minutes looking for that tiny (but precious) memory card before I finally had to admit that it had been nearly a complete loss.  With one fleeting moment of indescretion, I had lost my camera, lens, filter, memory card, and tripod.

And so with that, I packed all of the different pieces into my backpack and started hiking back to the Jeep, thankful that I still had a perfectly good lens cap in my pocket. . . and that it wasn’t me that had blown off the cliff instead.

The carcass of my dear old friend.

Posted by Troy McMullin

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Photo/picture of Oregon's Mt. Washington in Autumn

There are several different crops available for the above Mt. Washington Image including ones with plenty of text space if necessary.

Macro Photo of Autumn Ground cover in the Oregon Cascade

The above macro image of swirling autumn ground cover  taken at high elevation in the Central Oregon Cascades offers a more intimate view of autumn in Oregon.

Sparks Lake Sunrise

A more thorough description of how I captured the above Sparks Lake Sunrise Photograph is available at the following link.  Sparks Lake, an Oregon Landscape Photographer’s Dream

Photo Picture of Oregon's Three Fingered Jack Mountain from Canyon Creek Meadow

The above picture of Central Oregon’s Three Fingered Jack was taken at one of my favorite back country location at the peak of summer wildflower season.

Photo/image/picture of Bend Oregon's Shevlin Park in its autumn glory

The above photo of Bend Oregon’s Shevlin Park can currently be seen in a fine art version at the Sage Cafe in Bend Oregon’s Northwest Crossing neighborhood. Finally one last image of Central Oregon’s beloved Three SIsters Mountains during a beautiful winter sunrise.

Winter Sunrise on Central Oregon's Three Sisters Mountains

The above photo of the Three Sisters Mountains near Bend Oregon, can be seen at the Mountain Gallery of our Main Pacific Crest Stock Photography site by visiting the following link.  Oregon Mountains.  Please do visit our site to see more of our new images.  Pacific Crest Stock Photography

As Always, Thanks for visiting,

Mike Putnam

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Although it’s nearly impossible to pick out our true favorites, the following photos have a certain level of sentimental value as they often represented significant milestones from our early photography careers.  We hope you enjoy them.

1. Summit Sunrise

Summit Sunrise: Taken from the summit of South Sister with his large format camera, this photo of Mike’s is the Pacific Crest Stock signature shot. It has also been used in numerous advertising campaigns for the Bank of the Cascades.

2.  Strawberry Mountains

Cumulus Clouds over the Strawberry Mountains: This photo from Eastern Oregon was the first cover shot that Troy sold through Pacific Crest Stock.

3.  Sparks Lake Sunset

Sparks Lake Sunset: This was one of Mike’s first shots with his large format camera, and continues to be one of his best selling prints.

4.  Skier on Three Fingered Jack

Skier on Three Fingered Jack: This photo is currently the cover shot for the 2009 Discover Central Oregon tourism guide, and was one of Troy’s first stock sales featuring a person (him) in the photograph.

5.  Mount Jefferson Wildflowers

Mount Jefferson Wilderness: This photo is currently the cover shot for the 2009 Visit Bend tourism guide, and is one of Mike’s most popular large format prints.

6.  The Monument at Smith Rock

The Monument at Smith Rock: This is one of Troy’s favorite photo locations, and it absolutely drives Mike nuts. This photo is currently licensed by the SELCO Community Credit Union and can be found as a 10-foot mural inside their Redmond branch.

7. Aspen Leaves

Aspen Leaves: This macro composition is one of Mike’s best selling prints. It can also be found hanging in numerous businesses throughout Bend (and in the homes of nearly all of his friends).

8.  Mount Hood from Lost Lake

Mount Hood from Lost Lake: This photo was used as the cover shot for Troy’s very first photography calendar. It marked the beginning of his photography career.

9.  Basalt Columns

Basalt Columns at Smith Rock State Park. This photo of Mike’s was used as the cover shot for last year’s Discover Central Oregon tourism guide.

10.  Oceanside Sunset

Sunset at Oceanside: This was one of Troy’s first coastal photographs, and is one of the first large format prints that he had framed. It was also featured in one of our first blog entries.

Thanks for all of your support through the year, and we’re looking forward to another exciting year in 2010. Cheers!

Posted by Troy McMullin

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Picture of hiker in Fog at Cape Kiwanda in Pacific City, Oregon.

Sunrise on the Tatoosh Range from Mount Rainier National Park

Mountain biking at Smith Rock State Park in Terrebonne, Oregon

Trees along Whitewater Creek in the Mount Jefferson Wilderness Area.

Sunrise at Trillium Lake with Mount Hood reflecting in the background.

Hiking below one of the waterfalls along Fall Creek and the Green Lakes Trail

Purple lupine at Paradise in Mount Rainier National Park

Sunset in the Mount Hood Wilderness Area

If you want to see more photos from my recent adventures, check out the New Images gallery on our main Pacific Crest Stock photography site. This gallery contains several hundred new images that Mike and I have taken over the last few months.

Posted by Troy McMullin

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Photo/Picsture of South Falls at Oregon's Silver Falls State Park

Silver Falls is located near Silverton, Oregon and was about a 2.5 hour drive from Bend in good weather.  A great way to explore Silver Falls is to hike the “Trail of Ten Falls”  which has a trailhead at the South Falls parking lot.   At about 8 miles in length, the hike might not be for everybody but it is certainly not a technical hike.  The image above is of South Falls from near the parking lot and visitor center.  South Falls drops 177ft into a beautiful dark pool.

Autumn leaves and South Falls at Silver Falls State Park in Oregon

South Falls is one of the three waterfalls in the park that you can actually walk behind which is a fun experience for young and old.  Continuing behind the falls will lead you accross an attractive foot bridge across Silver Creek which will connect you with the Trail Of Ten Falls.  If you follow the Trail of ten falls, like I did, you will next stumble upon Lower South Falls which is pictured below.

Photograph of Lower South Falls at Silver Falls State Park

There is beauty in every direction on this section of the trail of ten falls.  The outflow from Lower South Falls is particularly beautiful and I was lucky enough to catch some late fall color with the gracefully flowing Silver Creek in the following Image.

Silver Creek and fall color in Oregon's Silver Falls State Park

While continuing along the trail of ten falls, you’ll fight sensory overload for over a mile before hearing the roar of the small but attractive Lower North Falls pictures below.

Lower North Falls framed by autumn foliage

The trail throughout this state park is an exceptional tribute to Oregon’s natural beauty that cannot be overstated.  The lush textures of this temperate rain forest combined with the rich earthy aromas of early autumn decay are unforgettable and two of the few things that my home town of Bend, Oregon lacks.  Luckily, this green eden is only 2.5 hours away for a slow driver like myself.  The trail passes a few smaller but still enchanting falls during its next stretch.  Double falls, Drake Falls, and Middle North Falls are all enjoyed in this stretch of the Trail of ten falls.  A side trail off of the trail of ten falls visits the very worth winter falls.  This waterfall relies on heavier waterflows for its elegant form.  If you visit Silver Falls State Park in the heat of summer, you might skip this detour as the falls may be absent.  Below is Winter falls in its autumn glory.

Photo of Oregon's Winter Falls

this stunning waterfall does deserve inspection if there is enough water flow.  Below is a closer image of Winter falls.

Winter Falls and fall color at Silver Falls State Park

The trail is laden with life throughout this hike but particularly so between Twin falls and the Jaw Dropping North Falls.  Below is a small bonus I found during this autumn hike.

Mushrooms at Silver Falls State Park

In this startlingly beautiful hike, North Falls is truly one of the highlights.  There are many good vantage points from which to view this 136 foot watery beauty.

Picture/photo of North Falls at Silver Falls State Park

North falls is easily accessible from  the aptly named North Falls Parking lot.  It is not to be missed!  It is one of the waterfalls that you can walk behind if you can negotiate relatively easy sections of mossy lush wooded trail like the one pictured below.

Wooded Trail in Silver Falls State Park, Oregon

One last view of North Falls as seen from near the underpass seems worthy to me.  I was a little late for optimal fall color, but the scenery is stunning at any time of year in this wonderful State Park.

View from behind North Falls at Silver Falls State Park

This park is just plain amazing and a worthy visit for explorers of any age.  If you are traveling from Central Oregon I would highly recommend leaving early and planning on spending an entire day in this watery wonderland.  One final recommendation.  Stop at Rosie’s Mountain Coffe House in Mill City, Oregon along the way.  The service is great and the food and drinks are even better.  Excellent scones, flavorful coffee and the best cold cut sandwiches outside of Camp Sherman all served in a quaint roadside setting.  It should be part of your Silver Falls State adventure if you are visiting from the Central Oregon area.

More of our great Oregon Waterfall images can be found at our stock photography site which can be visited by clicking the following link: Oregon waterfall photos

Thanks for reading,

Mike Putnam

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Although Central Oregon is probably best known for all of its winter and summer fun, we think it might actually be at its best during autumn. Between the months of September and October, the Central Oregon towns of Bend, Sisters, Camp Sherman, and Sunriver are blessed with reliably sunny days, cool clear nights, and absolutely spectacular fall color. If you haven’t experienced autumn in Central Oregon, you’re really missing out on a special time. To help get you get started on planning next year’s vacation, the Pacific Crest Stock Photography team has pasted some suggestions below with photos from some of our favorite fall-time trails and activities.

Ten Things to Do During Central Oregon’s Autumn Months

1. Go hiking in the lava flows around the Three Sister Wilderness Area. There are many different lava flows to choose from within a short drive of Bend, Sunriver, or Sisters. Most of the lava flows are interspersed with vine maples and other vegetation, which turn beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow during the autumn months.

Backpacker standing on a lava flow near the Three Sisters Wilderness Area.

2. Go biking through a grove of aspen trees. Some of the best groves of aspen trees are found along the Deschutes River or Tumalo Creek Basin near Bend, the Ochoco National Forest outside of Prineville, the High Desert Museum between Bend and Sunriver, or near Black Butte Ranch along the outskirts of Sisters.

Biking through aspen trees outside of Sisters, Oregon.

3. Go hiking or biking on the Deschutes River Trail. The Deschutes River Trail is a real gem of a trail that runs through the Deschutes National Forest and connects the towns of Bend and Sunriver. It contains several beautiful waterfalls and large groves of Ponderosa pine, larch trees, and aspen trees. This is a perfect place to hike or bike with small children.

Fall color along the Deschutes River Trail near Bend, Oregon.

4. Go explore the forest service roads bordering the Mount Washington Wilderness Area. There is a wonderful network of roads that runs between highways 126 and 242 just outside of Sisters, Oregon. The roads provide access to the Mount Washington Wilderness Area and also provide great wide-open views of Black Butte, Three Fingered Jack, and Three Sisters Mountains. In September and October, the roads explode with fall color. For more information and photos from the Mount Washington Wilderness Area, see our previous entry.

Fall color around one of the many lakes near the Mount Washington Wilderness Area.

5. Go biking or rock climbing at Smith Rock State Park. Smith Rock State Park is always a magical place to visit, but it is especially nice in autumn when the banks of the Crooked River are alive with color. Because of its desert location, Smith Rock also tends to stay a few degrees warmer than the surrounding mountain towns of Bend, Sunriver and Sisters. This makes it an especially nice road trip on cooler October days. For more information and photos from Smith Rock State Park, see our previous entry.

Mountain biking at Smith Rock State Park in Terrebonne, Oregon.

6. Go visit the Camp Sherman Store and the Wizard Falls trout hatchery on the Metolius River. The world-famous Metolius River and the locally-loved Camp Sherman Store are two of the most special places in Central Oregon. The Metolius River puts on one of the most colorful autumn displays in the region, and between the fly fishing and hiking opportunities along the banks of the river, the trout-viewing at the Wizard Falls hatchery, and the awesomely huge sandwiches and well-stocked selection of local microbrews at the Camp Sherman Store, this stop belongs on your list of “must-do” activities. This is also a perfect place to hike with small children, and if your little ones need a little extra motivation, it might be nice to know that the Camp Sherman Store offers a large selection of penny candy (yes, a penny!). For more information and photos from the Metolius River, see our previous entry.

Wizard Falls on the Metolius River near Camp Sherman, Oregon.

7. Go for a drive over McKenzie Pass. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the drive up and over McKenzie Pass is one of the most scenic drives in North America. It offers a fascinating tour through the middle of a huge lava flow that is surrounded on both sides by touring Cascade Mountain peaks. There are tons of short hikes and explorations that can be accessed from the road over McKenzie Pass. After the highway closes in late autumn, the McKenzie Pass area also becomes one of region’s premier biking destinations. For more information and photos, see our previous entries about McKenzie Pass or the McKenzie River.

Autumn color around Tamolitch Pool (also known as the Blue Pool) on the McKenzie River Trail.

8. Go hiking or biking on the North Fork Trail above Tumalo Falls. Although many visitors know about Tumalo Falls, few people venture beyond the top of the first waterfall. The real secret about this area is that there are at least another half-dozen impressive waterfalls hiding just a short ways up the trail. Hikers usually make the trip as an out-and-back adventure. Bikers are allowed only on the uphill section of the trail, so if you’re on a bike, continue past the last waterfall at the 3.5 mile mark, ride through the wide open Happy Valley and then cross over the stream to your right. After crossing the stream, the path continues along a section of the Metolius-Windigo Trail before dropping back down to the parking lot on the opposite side of Tumalo Falls via the Farewell Bend Trail. The entire loop is about 11 miles. For more information and photos from the Tumalo Falls area, see our previous entry.

Autumn color at Tumalo Falls near Bend, Oregon.

9. Go fly fishing at one of Central Oregon’s many high alpine lakes or spring-fed streams. Central Oregon is blessed with a huge collection of high alpine lakes and spring-fed trout streams, which makes it a fisherman’s paradise. You could spend years visiting all of the lakes and streams hidden in the woods along the Cascade Lakes Highway, Santiam Pass, or McKenzie Pass, and never have to fish the same place twice. Grab your fly rod and go exploring. You know there’s a lunker waiting for you in the ripple.

Fly fishing near the Three Sisters Wilderness Area.

10. Go for a drive over Santiam Pass. In autumn, the drive over Santiam Pass looks like something from a fairy tale. The windy, two-lane highway hugs the shoulder of the Santiam Rivers’ North Fork for many miles, and there is a splendid display of bright red vine maples nearly the entire way between summit of the pass (4,800 feet) and Detroit Lake (1,400 feet). This is definitely the route of choice if you’re coming to Central Oregon from Salem or Portland.

Autumn moss and maple leaves on the Santiam River.

NOTE: Many of the activities above involve hiking or biking through our region’s National Forest areas. In autumn, it is important to remember that hikers and bikers are often sharing these areas with big-game hunters. As always, appropriate precautions and good common sense are highly recommended when venturing into the forest during hunting season.

To license these or any of our other stunning Central Oregon images, please visit our Oregon stock photos site, Pacific Crest Stock

Posted by Troy McMullin

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Fall color in the riparian area along Central Oregon's Crooked River.

According to my keen recollection of American History(and the big sign in the parking lot) Peter Skene Ogden was working for the Hudson’s Bay  Company in 1825  when  he led the first recorded journey into the Crooked River Basin not far from the current Crooked River Bridge.  I presume that is why this viewpoint is  named after Ogden rather than something catchy like “Pacific crest Stock Scenic Viewpoint”!  The yellow fall colors were more vibrant than I’ve ever seen in this location and the reds weren’t bad either!  The rock pattern also helps with this otherwise simple image.  Facing in the opposite direction and downstream, the Crooked River Canyon  carves a deep serpentine path through 300 foot tall basalt cliffs.  Some great clouds, the distant Black Butte, and the previously mentoned fall color make this a worthy photograph.

The Crooked River carves its way through basalt cliffs with a distant Black Butte in this photo

Looking back upstream from the same Crooked River Bridge which is closed to cars but open to people( this made me nervous at first!) One sees the obvious yet attractive Rex T. Barber Memorial Bridge.  Rex was something of a Hero during world War II.  He was born in nearby Culver, Oregon and was drafted into World War II.  Rex T. Barber was an ace fighter pilot who is widely credited with shooting down and killing Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto who was the planner of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor thereby initiating WWII.  In other words, Rex really was a hero.  Rex served in the military for 20 years and after a very successful stint flying P-38 lightnings, he was eventually shot down over China.  He survived the crash and five weeks later he was escorted back to allied forces by Chinese civilians.  Rex returned to Central Oregon after the war where he was an insurance agent, judge, mayor of Culver and a huge civic booster.  I don’t usually get moved by these Memorial plaque tales by this one really was somewhat touching to me.  I also am hesistant to include man made objects in my landscape photographs, but for Rex T. Barber I’ll make an exception.  Below is the handsome Rex T. Barber Memorial Bridge high above the Crooked River canyon and it’s luminous fall color.

Picture of the Rex T. Barber Veteran's Memorial Bridge high above the Crooked River Canyon, in Central Oregon

Another High desert Photography favorite , Smith Rock State Park also had some great fall color this year.  Below is an attractive sunrise casting a delicate pink glow on one of the main rock formations at Smith Rock.  It may not be as stunning as Troy’s sunset image from this same location found in this blog entry  Smith Rock Photos but the delicate predawn light works well with the fall color in the riparian areas at the base of Smith Rock’s massive rock formations.

Picture of early morning light at Central Oregon's Smith Rock State Park

Slightly to the North of this scene lies the famed Morning Glory wall and “the Dihedrals”,  favorites of rock climbers around the world.  I’ve been to the morning glory wall area many times but I’ve struggled with lighting there.  The following image of the Morning Glory Wall and the dihedrals with fall color and cumulous clouds makes for a good stock photo.

Photo/Picture of Morning glory wall and the dihedrals at Smith Rock State Park

On the same pleasantly cloudy day I shifted over a touch and took an obligatory photograph from the main viewpoint at Smith Rock State Park.  Normally I avoid this spot as it is a bit cliched but I couldn’t resist because of the great clouds that were floating above the scene.

Picture/Photo from the main viewpoint at Smith Rock State Park

Finally We’ll leave Smith Rock behind after one more image.  This rock formation is referred to as “the Monument”  Stunningly vertical, is calls to some like no other rock formation in Central Oregon.  I merely think of it as the scene that launched a thousand psychiatric evaluations for my Pacific Crest partner, Troy.  To learn more about Troy’s struggles, visit this previous blog entry.  Smith Rock Photo phychosis.  It’s a good shot but mostly I included this image in this particular blog entry in an effort to torture Troy.  He’ll be back at the monument later today nervously composing scenes and incoherently mumbling to himself like Milton in the classic movie, “Office Space”.

Troy's Folly, sunrise light on the monument at Smith Rock State Park

I’ve included this next and final photo of aspen trees with some great color not so much because I love the image but because I felt obligated to mention it.  I’ve been there so many times that it feels like a distant cousin who I feel obligated to invite to Thanksgiving dinner because they live two blocks away.  Anyway, here are my distant cousin aspen trees!

Central Oregon aspen trees in full fall color

If any of our blog readers have fall color suggestions for next year please let us know.  For some of our other fall color images, please visit our main Pacific Crest website by following the following link Pacific Crest Images .   Thanks for visiting our photo blog!

All the Best,

Mike Putnam

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For those who aren’t familiar with McKenzie Pass, it’s one of the most beautiful drives in the lower 48 states. The narrow winding two-lane road follows an old wagon route through an ancient 65-square-mile lava flow with up close views of the Three Sisters Mountains, Mount Washington, and Belknap Crater before finally plummeting 1,200 vertical feet through a series of paved switchbacks and past a number of stunning waterfalls. My morning drive over McKenzie Pass was a bit too sunny to allow for good waterfall photography, so I decided to take a pit-stop at one of the high alpine lakes to do some fly fishing.

Fly fishing near the Three Sisters Wilderness Area, just outside of Sisters Oregon. Photo available from Pacific Crest Stock Photography

After an hour or so of fishing my way around the shoreline, I noticed that a good collection of clouds had started rolling in, so I got back in the Jeep and continued down the highway with the hopes of hiking into the waterfalls above Linton Lake. The hike into Linton Lake was bursting with color, but unfortunately the creeks feeding the lake were swollen from our recent snowmelt, which made the unmarked hike to the falls much more difficult than I had anticipated. I could have crossed the knee-deep creeks and made it to the waterfalls, but in the end, I thought it might be best if I saved that adventure for a different day.

As I was hiking out from Linton Lake, I remembered that the Proxy Falls Loop was just a few miles down the road. The Proxy Falls Loop is an easy 1-mile loop that crosses a fiery-red, vine-maple-laden lava flow and then passes through a great old-growth rainforest featuring two spectacular waterfalls that plunge over towering moss-covered cliffs. Upper Proxy Falls drops about 100-feet into a shallow pool that oddly enough has no outlet stream. The water cascades into the pool and then percolates its way down through the underlying lava beds. It’s a very odd sight.

Photo from one of the upper sections of Oregon’s Upper Proxy Falls near McKenzie Pass. Photo available from Pacific Crest Stock Photography.

As if Upper Proxy Falls wasn’t enough of a destination by itself, the other waterfall on the loop (Lower Proxy Falls) is even better. Lower Proxy Falls streams its way down a 200-foot glacier-carved cliff, spreading out into a collection of silky bands along the way. This is the type of waterfall that landscape photographers dream about.

Photo of Oregon’s Lower Proxy Falls in Autumn. Photo available from Pacific Crest Stock Photography.

Lower Proxy Falls is a real jaw-dropper when you’re standing below it, but honestly, I have yet to see a photograph that really does justice to its mammoth size. It’s hard to fight the temptation to photograph the waterfall from its base (as I did above), but that vantage point has a way of fore-shortening the actual drop. After taking the photo above, I decided to try to a new angle and photograph the falls from the side. In the photograph below, you can see that Lower Proxy Falls absolutely dwarfs me standing there in the lower right corner. I feel like this perspective finally begins to capture the size of the waterfall. This is definitely one of my new favorite photographs from the year, and I’m really, really hoping that our good friends who publish the local tourism guides will eventually feel the same way J

The author, Troy McMullin, dwarfed by the size of Lower Proxy Falls. Photo available from Pacific Crest Stock Photography.

After leaving the Proxy Falls Loop, I drove a few more miles and then parked my Jeep and jumped on my mountain bike for a quick ride along the McKenzie River Trail. There aren’t enough adjectives in the English language to describe the way I feel about the McKenzie River Trail, but suffice it to say that I think this is probably one of the best mountain biking trails in the entire world. OK, I might be stretching it a bit there, but honestly, if you live in the area, you have to go ride the McKenzie River Trail at least once in your life. It is just about the most scenic ride you could ever hope for, especially in mid-to-late October when the riverbed and forest are overflowing with red, orange, and yellow leaves. Just be careful though because it’s also a very technical ride, especially when the lava rocks and roots are wet and slippery.

I stopped by the McKenzie River Trail because I was hoping to capture some mountain bike photos along the way. Unfortunately, the sun was beginning to set low on the horizon by the time I arrived and there was very little light making its way onto the heavily forested trail. Since the lighting conditions weren’t cooperating with my plans, I just sat back and enjoyed an epic ride and another epic end to a wonderful day in Central Oregon. Mountains, lakes, lava flows, rivers, rainforests and waterfalls all surrounded in awesome fall color and all just a short drive from home. Are you kidding me? How lucky are we?

Posted by Troy McMullin.

NOTE: These photos and hundreds more are available for licensing from Pacific Crest Stock Photography.

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