Sea or clouds?

I marvel at how low clouds can change the appearance of a landscape. From one of valleys bounded by hills to a sea interspersed with islands. I sometimes imagine that I'm seeing how this part of Oregon looked 15,000 years ago. At the end of the last ice age, a constriction in the Columbia River gorge created a 3,000 square-mile lake from the torrent of waters released by a melting glacial dam near Missoula, MT. The turbulent waters of "Lake Allison" would have been about 400 feet deep here.

Going with the flow

Come fly with me for a few minutes on one of my favorite flights. We're headed down the Willamette River on its way north to the Columbia River, 160 miles distant. Since 1850, this river basin has undergone dramatic change. It's now home to Oregon's premier agricultural area and nearly 70 percent of its population. Only about a third of the floodplain forest remains and the southern end of the river, where we are, has lost 60 percent of the channel area and as much or more of the islands. As Oregon State professor extraordinaire Stan Gregory says, "We took what was a complex, braided system and turned it into a pipe." And fortunately for me, as I fly along, that knowledge fails to dampen my wonder at the richly-alive and ever-changing world created by melting snow finding its way to the ocean.  It is, after all, still quite a beautiful pipe.

The Three Sisters on a better hair day

The Three Sisters (North, Middle and South, or more poetically, Faith, Hope and Charity) earlier in the year before their flanks were smothered with smoke from forest fires. Each of these volcanic peaks is over 10,000 feet. In Oregon, only Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson are taller. South Sister erupted most recently -- 20,000 years ago -- and it's shown some signs of life in the last 10 years. A geologist told me that living on the other side of these 3 siblings in nearby Bend was like living with a shotgun pointed at your head. But then, in the immortal words of Roseanne Roseannadanna, "It just goes to show ya, it's always something."

Fire in the air

The flames from a wildfire burning in the Deschutes National Forest just beyond the 3 peaks on the horizon (the Three Sisters) that charred over 25,000 acres of ground didn't reach this high into the air. But on this morning, the heavy smoke from this terrestrial combustion combined with a rising sun to replicate that fiery cataclysm in the sky.  

A look westward

One of the things that I love about where I live in Oregon is that I can reach this vista (Yaquina Head) by driving west for somewhat over an hour, and by venturing in the opposite direction for an hour longer I can be at the trailhead to the meadows below Mt. Jefferson seen in an earlier post. Both are much closer by AirCam not through any great speed advantage, which doesn't exist, but through the freedom flight grants to cut corners.

Water droplet topography

I'm fascinated by the topography and textures of clouds, particularly as seen from above. When I enter these landscapes of water droplets, I'm transported to worlds unlike anything I've known with my feet planted firmly on Earth. 

Dark sky comfort

Where would you rather be? Under these dark clouds or out in the clear skies ahead? I tend to seek out the grayscale world rendered by low overcasts for the comfort they provide. Just all of a piece, I guess, with my distrust of optimism, early interest in Russian literature and discomfort with bright, sunny personalities.