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Photographers often talk of the “blue hour” after the sun sets when the sky can appear a wonderful shade of blue if you leave your shutter open long enough. The blue hour can happen in the morning as well, before the sun rises, as you can see in this photo that I took earlier this year at about 5:30 in the morning in Napa, California.
During our only full day at Lake Siskiyou we drove about 8 miles to Castle Lake (elevation 5436 feet). From there we went on a 5-mile (or so) hike to Heart Lake (elevation 6035 feet) and then above it to Castle Peak (elevation 6617 feet). The views are best from Heart Lake and above Heart Lake on Castle Peak where you can see the lakes, Mt. Shasta, Castle Crags and a lovely 360 degrees of wilderness. Today’s photo isn’t from the top though. The lakes are obscured by trees, but you can see Black Butte and Mt. Shasta, as well as some of my hiking party.
We can see the Milky Way on some nights in Ashland, but camping at the Lake Siskiyou Camp Resort in Northern California provides a much better view of the Milky Way. The smoke you see in today’s photo (below the Milky Way and above my tent) was coming from the next campsite over. I slept with just tent netting on the other side of the tent so that I could gaze at the Milky Way through the night. Unfortunately, clouds gathered, thunder and lightning began, and soon thereafter I was getting wet and had to close things up.
We just returned from a few days in California. We camped near Lake Siskiyou which is near Mt. Shasta in Northern California, only a little over an hour south of Ashland. The lake was chaos on hot days in the afternoon on a weekend in August, but I took today’s photo in the morning with few people around.
Thursday night I headed up I-5 to the new Johnny B’s in Medford to catch The Yearling, Exhausted Prayer, and Sumerian.
The show started so late (after 10:30 and I had to get up by 7 the next morning) that I didn’t stick around to see Sumerian, but it was Exhausted Prayer who I really wanted to see. If you like Opeth, Bloodbath, Immortal, or Enslaved then you should like these guys.
Johnny B’s is much improved over the old place. The stage is bigger, the bathroom is a million times better, and it will be more enjoyable to watch bands here. Johnny B’s isn’t really open yet (no food or drinks being served yet), but hopefully that will change soon and the bands will come.
Today’s photo is from last week’s trip to the Howard Prairie Lake Resort Marina. Today we are heading down to California to do a weekend of camping at Lake Siskiyou.
Mount McLoughlin can be seen in the distance in the center. In real life the mountain stands out much more, but with a wide angle lens everything seems more distant than in reality.
Last month we hiked up Upper Table Rock to watch the sun set. It’s not much of a hike really–more like a good walk. I’m not sure the exact distance we walked, but I doubt it was more than 5 miles including exploring the top. There is a bit of elevation gain on the way up, but it isn’t strenuous. In the summer you probably don’t want to do it in the afternoon or it will feel difficult from the heat. Go up in the morning or just before the sunset (with a flashlight for the way down) if you decide to visit on a hot day. Bring water.
Directions: To get to the Upper Table Rock trailhead from I-5 take the Central Point Exit 33 (just north of Medford and about 20 minutes north of Ashland), drive east on Biddle Road 1 mile, turn left on Table Rock Road for 5.2 miles to a curve, and then turn right on Modoc Road for 1.5 miles to the trailhead parking lot on the left. There is a sign as you approach Modoc Road so it is hard to miss.
During my second trip to Hyatt Lake of the summer I saw this red-tailed hawk. In my prior post I labeled the bird as a bald eagle (as that is what I was told), but now I’m thinking it was an osprey.
Moments after taking today’s photograph at the Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon (about 2 hours north of Ashland on I-5), this emu seemed to think that our Prius was his mate. We couldn’t really move for a while (until he finished his business) without running him over.
Twenty miles east of Ashland you will find Howard Prairie Lake. We headed up there yesterday to escape the heat and take a bike ride. At an elevation of over 4500 feet (Ashland is at 2000 feet), the temperature is usually about 10 degrees cooler.
Today’s photo is a three pic photomerge (with a wide angle lens to begin with) so it covers almost 180 degrees. If you look really closely you can see Mt. McLoughlin to the right of center.