Rain clouds pushed to the east and opened up the sky just in time for the sun to set, bringing forth a beautiful light show this evening.
I shot these photos with my phone — the first one while sitting at a red light at the intersection of Battlefield Road and Kansas Expressway, and the final three one minute apart from each other near the Springfield-Republic border.
I was also playing this song as I drove there:
Coldwater Lake was formed when the mountain erupted in 1980. The shoreline is still very delicate.
Mount St. Helens covered in snow brings forth a different perspective on the mountain that blew its top in 1980.
I was blessed to live most of my life in an area that hosts a wide range of scenery, from the coast to the Cascades. I grew up in the shadow of Mount St. Helens, the volcano that erupted in 1980.
In the winter and early spring, the mountain is all but inaccessible to the casual tourist — but more adventurous folk can still get climbing passes and enjoy an unparalleled view of southwest Washington and northwest Oregon. But yesterday, I was indeed a casual tourist, so I took the rental car up State Route 504 as far east as I could go.
The Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center and Johnston Ridge Observatory don’t open until late May, so SR 504 was closed at the Hummocks Trail. Snow lined both sides of the road, but the highway was clear, making it an easy drive. There weren’t too many people up there, so I was able to pull my car to the side of the road in many places I wouldn’t normally be able to, in order to get a good shot.
I traveled with a friend to the Oregon coast for the weekend. We’re still here as of the time of this writing, FYI — but yesterday was great. The weather was dark to start the day, but the clouds broke and the beach was teeming with people on Spring Break.
So we decided to go to a few places where people weren’t so plentiful. We hit up Ecola State Park, a part of Fort Stevens State Park that wasn’t too busy, and finally Seaside, where we chilled for the evening and watched Gonzaga lose in the NCAA tournament. But hey, Oregon won!
Picher’s water tower still stands. Interesting to note the date of the town’s founding…I wonder if anyone will inscribe the date on which it died?
Picher, Oklahoma is America’s newest ghost town.
The abandoned mining town in the far northeast corner of Oklahoma, close to the Kansas and Missouri borders, is on the verge of complete collapse on account of acidic mining water turning Tar Creek red and eating away at the earth underneath the surface.
Most of the buildings are now destroyed, and the landscape is dominated by drab gray hills known as “chat piles,” or mining waste. Very few people remain.
I last visited Picher in late 2008 on my way back to Springfield from Wichita, and I saw a town in great decline. Several people still lived in the town, not having yet accepted a government buyout of their property. Not five years ago, the town still boasted a bank, small museum and a few other buildings — as well as many homes.
But what mining could not do, a tornado did in early 2008. Eight people in Picher were killed when a twister roared through the community, destroying many homes and buildings. The fine folks of Picher had seen enough. (Not all of them though, apparently: A Wired article from 2010 has some insight about those who absolutely refused to leave.)
Today, my friend Spencer and I visited the town and saw a landscape different than what I had seen four years ago. Only a few buildings remain, with concrete pads now visible where homes that sheltered families once stood. The houses that do remain are either scrawled with a rather eerie “KEEP OUT” command or are simply on the verge of collapse.
I had the chance to snap some photos and document a few moments in time of this still-decaying town. Time and neglect has taken its toll on Picher, and it won’t be long before everything in that corner of the world is just a memory.
A panorama of Upper Lewis River Falls in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
My friend Andy and I took a trip on Sunday to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest to see the three Lewis River Falls. The waterfalls are tucked away back into the wilderness beyond the Mount St. Helens volcanic area, toward the eastern end of Skamania County.
It’s pretty rugged wilderness, and the trail we hiked was good for moderate hiking as well as some extreme mountain biking…we passed plenty of people on bikes headed down from the biggest waterfall to the trailhead.
There were three waterfalls on the trip and they’re each shown below. More photos of this hike to come later in a trip recap after my vacation.
The Lower Lewis River Falls in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, as seen from a viewpoint just off Forest Road 90. The Lewis River carries a large amount of water in late spring/early summer.
Foliage frames the Middle Lewis River Falls as seen along the Lewis River Trail #30. The river was flowing very fast down this waterfall.
The most majestic of the three, the Upper Lewis River Falls, shoots out a large amount of water as seen from the bank of the river.
It’s not often that I have a photo of myself taken, much less without glasses. Oh well, enjoy this one.
After an evening of hanging with friends, I decided to spend a short time in downtown Chehalis and Centralia shooting some photos before it rained. I was rained out rather early, so here’s all I have at this point.
Downtown Chehalis, Wash., as viewed northbound on Market Boulevard the evening of June 30, 2012.
The St. Helens Apartments in Chehalis, Wash., is a former hotel that stands as one of Chehalis’ most historic buildings.
The Centralia Train Depot as viewed from Railroad Avenue on June 29, 2012.
The back portion of the Centralia Train Depot as viewed on the evening of June 29, 2012.
Thousands of people took part in the Walk of Unity in Joplin, Mo., on May 22, 2012, to commemorate those lost and to celebrate recovery efforts after the tornado that hit the city exactly one year earlier.
A woman holds up a handwritten sign expressing unity of the Joplin community at a staging area near 17th and Rangeline in Joplin, May 22, 2012.
Hundreds of people descend down 17th Avenue past Rangeline Road as the Walk of Unity kicks off. People joined from multiple states and multiple communities across Missouri to walk the route of the tornado.
A homestead near West Mineral, Kansas, sits dwarfed by a backdrop of the sun hiding behind approaching clouds on Friday, April 27, 2012.
When a storm chase turns into an absolute bust, you make the best of it.
I traveled with two of my friends from KY3 to southeast Kansas in anticipation of storms brewing, but such never happened. But as we sat in front of the Big Brutus, Inc., mining museum in West Mineral, the sun started painting the sky with color as it faded below the horizon for the night.
A field in West Mineral, Kansas, extends out to the horizon as the sun prepares to set on April 27, 2012.
Grain stops bowing in the wind for a split second as storms try to fire up in the distance.
Matt Holliday of the St. Louis Cardinals takes a cut at a fastball during an exhibition game against the Class AA Springfield Cardinals in Springfield, Mo., April 2, 2012.
The weather was gorgeous, the fans were ready for baseball and the 2011 World Series champions came to town for an exhibition matchup against their AA farm club, the Springfield Cardinals.
Although a few big-name stars for St. Louis didn’t travel, Springfield fans had plenty to cheer about as Matt Holliday and David Freese played and several former Baby Birds made appearances as well.
Over 10,000 fans showed up to watch the game, which St. Louis won 3-2. Here’s to hoping the St. Louis boys can have another stellar season this year.
Here are some photos of various scenes from around the ballpark. Baseball is by far my favorite sport to shoot…I sunburned badly but it was so worth it.
Matt Holliday of the St. Louis Cardinals prepares to acknowledge a young fan during a pre-game autograph session at Hammons Field April 2, 2012.
The College Station Car Park is seen in downtown Springfield, Mo., on the evening of March 29, 2012.
A car zooms toward an intersection, eastbound toward Park Central Square in downtown Springfield, Mo., on March 29, 2012.
An old advertisement is displayed at the Central Bus Transfer Station in Springfield, Mo., March 29, 2012.
The Monarch Art Gallery on the outer fringe of downtown Springfield, Mo., is illuminated on the evening of March 29, 2012.
I thought it would be neat to try to photograph a few things that might look good in black and white. Let me know if I succeeded.