Transitioning out of a long Pacific Northwest winter I’ll start with the image of three rocks bedded in the Kettle River locked in a winter’s ice sheath. The simplicity of form, the stark contrast of light and dark, the line of composition remind me of a Japanese sumi drawing.
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Waiting for Spring…
An old cottonwood along the banks of the Kettle River reaches up into the cold, early March sky. Not much thawing of the ice flows today. Snow lay deep along the trail. Listening close I could hear the whisperings of ice and water as the river enters the transition from the cold season to one slightly warmer. For a moment the thick clouds parted and rays of sunshine found a distant mountain. It soon passed. The message was clear – not today, not today…
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The patient fisher... This bald eagle patiently perches atop the cottonwoods overlooking a mountain river, watching the cold waters below for a sign of the whitefish run of late winter in northeastern Washington State.
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Mount Index... While the valleys shed their coast of ice and snow the NW highlands remain winter bound this time of year. Mount Index is a classic mountain peak of the west. Located within the North Cascade Mountain Range, the vertical fingers of Mount Index can be easily seen from the Salish Sea and many points across the region. This inspiring rock lies south of the Skykomish River and despite its relatively low elevation, it is both a dramatic and famous Western Washington landmark. Mount Index is composed of three pointed spires rising steep from a low base. Persindex, Mount Index and Philadelphia Mountain the latter is the highest rising over 5,500 feet above sea level from a base of just over 400 feet.
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Big Horn Run… This is one of the many lower ridgelines within the Kettle Breaks of Vulcan Mountain, along the northern shores of the Kettle River. Big Horn sheep frequent this rugged area as do local rock climbers and trekkers.
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Young Big Horn Ram taking in the warmth of a late winter’s sunshine while browsing on thin, dry grasses from last year as the new ‘green up’ has yet to grow…
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Burning Snags… As winter gives way to spring, the grasses and other wildland fuels dry with the coming of warmer weather. In the wildfire ecologies east of the Cascade Mountain Range spring fires are a common occurrence like this one started by a careless burner it charred forty acres of upland meadow and Ponderosa Pine litter before firefighters brought it under control. But even in such events as wildfires there is an inherent, natural beauty as witnessed here with the embers of a burning snag floating through the air in the late evening light as other ground fires burn nearby. Such is nature…
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