Yep, a few more waterfall photos... and a beautiful old mountain.

One Saturday, June 8th, "D" and I actually got in the truck TOGETHER and drove to Starvation Creek Falls (no one really starved).  Even though "D" was still trying to justify her decision to sell the camper, she really felt much better (an a lot lighter) about the whole thing and I could see that she was going to be OK.
We pulled into the parking lot at the Starvation Creek trail head and Peter was waiting for all of us in his car.
Today we would see and photograph four more waterfalls and Mt. Hood from Trillium Lake at sunset.
(I hope I have these Falls and photos have the right names. If anyone who lives up there finds a name that doesn't fit a waterfall, quietly email me and let me know what I did. I don't want to look like I don't know where I was. That would be embarrassing.)
On Wordless Wednesday I posted some photos of Starvation Creek. The falls are seen from quite a distance up the creek. This creek is so beauty. I used a fast speed to get this water so silky and blurred. Here is a good link for those of you who would like to shoot better water shots.

This is Cabin Creek Falls and one of my favorites.

It's behind a huge basalt boulder (not the one you see in the photo. It's huge and blocks the falls from view.) You have to climb around the boulder and hike over lots of downed trees to get to it.

Then we walked to Hole in the Wall Falls. 

This use to be called Warren Falls but in the late 1930's the state diverted the fall because it was causing rocks slides and water problems for the new scenic highway that was being built. You can read about it here.

 I passed on another hike. I stayed here at Hole in the Wall and took more photos while the others walked across a footbridge and hiked up to Lancaster Falls. This was just one fall too many for me.
We returned to the parking lot and drove into Hood River for lunch.the five of us sat outside on a deck and ordered a really good lunch.  Good conversation and great weather.

The next drive was a longer one. We drove south out of Hood River on highway 35 toward Mt Hood. This is a beautiful drive and goes through a lovely valley and then into the mountains.
We made a stop at Little Zig Zag Falls and I took a nap in the truck. I just couldn't do one more fall. I was dragging. Yesterday's hike had finally caught up with me. It felt good to close my eyes and rest next to a lovely creek, and old bridge... the peace and quiet... the beautiful stillness... with an outhouse nearby.
 I tried to sleep. Then, out of nowhere, one by one, came a boy on a bicycle, two more cars with hikers, a woman on a golf cart with two young people who were in their wedding attire. The girl even had a bouquet of long stemmed roses.
I thought I was alone, in the middle of nowhere and here came all this activity. Amazing.

The "golf cart" woman was a photographer. She pose the two young people on the bridge and in front of the wild Rhododendrons that were blooming all over the place. Must have been beautiful photos for their wedding book.

Then they got back into the golf cart and left.
Where do you suppose they came from? Where did they go?  A golf cart isn't allowed on a highway. There must be more to this place than met my eyes.
Within an hour, my group returned from Little Zig Zag and we made plans to meet at Trillium Lake . Mt. Hood at sunset was next on our agenda.
 "D" and I spent quite a while photographing the wildflowers, especially the wild rhododendrons, then we went back out to the highway. We turned north, then south and wandered around in the Trillium Lake campground for a while, LOST, looking for the parking lot. Finally we found it and parked. We still had plenty of light. There were lots of people around. Some were leaving and some were fishing, barbecuing and having a good time. It's was so pretty there.... and across the lake with the sun shining on it was Mt. Hood, in all its glory. This is an amazingly beautiful mountain.
We couldn't fine Peter so we called him and he told us where he was and how to get there. Yes, the cell phones worked there. Truly astonishing.
We walked around the east side of the lake on a boardwalk and finally saw Peter and Amy, but no Gary.
He had gotten lost trying to find the lake and decided to go back to Portland where his wife was waiting for him. I"m sorry he missed this shoot. The mountain was clear, snow covered and reflecting itself in the lake.
We set up our tripods and started shooting.

Watching the sun set west of Mt. Hood was awesome.  The water was calm at first because there wasn't any wind. Then, the wind started altering the reflection in the lake.

 And the sun lowered...casting shadows on the lake and darkness on the east side of the mountain.

What beauty there is in a mountain. The earth heaves, the wind and water erode, and the earth below pushes up through it, every few hundred years or so, depositing more igneous debris.

 Mt Hood is a Stratovolcano and is more than 500,000 years old. It's an interesting old mountain that is said to be "potentially active" but considered dormant. Here's some info.

The wind removed the image of the mountain from the lake.

 The darkness shadowed the trail back to the car.

And the fragrance of campfires filled the air.

This was a magical time. The last light of the sun slowly slid up the west side of the mountain and disappeared into the sky.

 "For it's just that I see mountains once again as mountains,
And waters once again as waters." ~Ching-yuan~

We packed up and returned to our cars. The drive back to Troutdale was long and the darkness came fast.
We found the correct turn off and finally pulled into the motel. It was a long day. A thousand photographs later we found ourselves too tired to sort through them and went to sleep filled with dreams of snow covered mountains and abundant water.

(All of these photos were taken with a Nikon D5100 and a Tamron 10-24mm F/3.6-4.5 lens.)