As each day gets a little darker and colder than the last this time of year it is fun to dip into the archives and remember what it’s like to go fishing in the nearby Rogue River in August.

Posted on November 30th, 2008 under nature, people, places. Tags: clouds, skywatch, summer, trees, water. Comments: None

The third of Ashland’s “Big Three” parades is the Festival of Light, held every year on the day after Thanksgiving. The other two are the 4th of July and Halloween parades. This one is the least popular, probably because it is the coldest. But there are still thousands of people in attendance.

After the parade Santa lights up the town (the “Grand Illumination”) from the balcony at Alex’s restaurant. Carols are sung and little kids get their picture taken with Santa at the Black Swan. Over a million lights go on.

The picture, above, is before most of the lights went on since it was taken before the parade. You can see the Varsity Theatre (home of the Ashland Film Festival), and the Ashland Springs Hotel.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Larks which is between the hotel and the theatre. It was the best Thanksgiving dinner I’ve ever had.

Posted on November 29th, 2008 under only in ashland, places. Tags: buildings, festival of light, night photography, winter. Comments: 2

Today’s picture goes along with yesterday’s. It was taken a couple of months after yesterday’s photo in 2004. My kids and I were hiking on Bull Gap Trail. In the background (upper left) you can see Wagner Butte.

Bull Gap is a trail that leads you right up to the ski lodge on Mt. Ashland. I’ve hiked it a couple of times and ridden my bike down it a half dozen or so times. If you want to bike down it you should ride your bike up the main road to the lodge or you can ride up some fire roads to get there. If you start from Ashland you’ll be in for a long day. If you don’t have the time you can drive a car up to four corners and ride up from there.

Both Bull Gap and Wagner Butte are in the Siskiyou Mountains. From both you can view the Cascade Mountain Range.

Posted on November 28th, 2008 under nature, only in ashland, people, places. Tags: biking, hike, mountains, people, trees. Comments: None

I’ve been showing some pictures of Mexico on my other blog this week. Most are of Ashland’s sister city, Guanajuato. By searching for those pictures, I’ve discovered some others of Southern Oregon like the last two days’ photos.

Today’s picture is of a hike I took with my kids several years ago in May. Snow was still on some of the local mountains even though everything had turned green. The hike was to Wagner Butte, a place that can be seen from Ashland. We didn’t make it all the way there, but I went back a month later without my kids to complete the trip. (It’s about 10 miles each way with an elevation gain of something like 3,000 feet.) This photograph was taken after just a mile or two (which is actually the steepest part of the whole hike).

We would have hit snow long before we reached Wagner Butte anyway so the intent on that day wasn’t to do the whole thing. To get to the trailhead you go through Talent, the town just north of Ashland. Best time to do it is late spring or early summer as there can be tons of wildflowers.

Posted on November 27th, 2008 under nature, places. Tags: hike, mountains, snow, trees. Comments: 3