Photo Journal

I had my truck packed and left right after work to go explore a new area and photograph the scenery. I got there around 9:30pm and the temperature had already started to fall. The weather guys were forecasting a low around 34* for the night. This should prove interesting sleeping for the two nights I had planned in the woods.

Shortly after arriving I was snuggled up in two sleeping bags for the night and off to sleep. 4am was going to come early… too early.

The morning didn’t go exactly as planned. I set the alarm clock on my phone for 4am, but my phone had other ideas. It spent the whole night searching for a signal which ran the battery down…. Thus no alarm clock. I woke up at 5:30am chilled and working frantically to get dressed (both because of the cold and the pending sunrise). My goal for the day was to hike about a half mile down river to where it bent back to the east. I wanted to get first light and the sunrise over the river.

The hike was uneventful and I got there just shortly after first light. I did however miscalculate the position of the sunrise. It came up south of my position and didn’t align with the bend in the river thus no orange glowing ball over the river. Awww well, we can’t win them all.

After photographing the scene for a while and enjoying the mist rising from the river I packed it in and went back to the truck.
Next on the agenda was to locate Cossatot Falls. During heavy river flow it is classified as a “class V” rapid for those that love the whitewater. Once I got to the area the sun had started throwing its warm glow on the western bank but it would be a while before the whole river bottom was bathed in glowing light.

I explored the area a bit and did some rapids photography so I could slow down the shutter to get the silky flowing water effect. The Cossatot River was at its low stage and the rapids were nowhere near “Class V”, but the view was spectacular just the same. I had huge boulders and rapids in front of me, and fall colors on the far bank. How can you ask for more?

I hiked around and stopped frequently to photograph the scene, and then the river had other ideas. My goal was to hike to another falls that was supposed to be down river. This falls was supposed to be less challenging on the whitewater scale. HOWEVER the river tossed up a rock cliff that was around an 8 or 9 foot drop below my current location. Normally I would have just shimmied down the cliff and kept going, but common sense prevailed once I realized I didn’t have any way to get back up. The rock cliff was very smooth thanks to years of water flowing over it. There was just not any way to get a hand or foot hold to get back up.

By this time the river corridor was getting plenty of light and I started my way back to the truck (since I couldn’t go forward). Keep in mind it took me a while to get to the truck since I was constantly stopping to photograph the scene. There is a lot of interesting rock formations here at Cossatot Falls, and it is hard to do them any justice with a 28mm lens. I guess I am going to have to invest in a wider angle lens. Some of these rocks were towering over me and they were smoothed from years of water. This just imparted the magnitude of the river I was standing in. What was currently dry isn’t always dry. I felt fortunate to be able to get out on some of these rocks to get my images.

After leaving the falls I went in search of a couple more river crossings further up river. They were not flowing as fast as the falls, but they were nice just the same. In one location I hopped my way out onto some rocks and that is where I had lunch. There is nothing like sitting on a rock with some small rapids on either side of you eating your lunch. It was really peaceful and I spent a bit more time here than I probably should have (photographically speaking).

I spent the rest of the day exploring the area looking for other streams and places to shoot. Even though I didn’t get a whole lot more photo’s that day it was fun to be out exploring new areas. Some of the places that I had wanted to go to were gated off so no dice there.

I found a place to park for the night and relaxed by the river for a while enjoying the calming sounds of small rapids. It had started to get dark so I grabbed my chair and headed back to the truck. Tomorrow will be another day to photograph the river.

Just like the night before it was cold and of course I didn’t have any signal on my phone so the alarm clock was out of the question. I had decided to lay down about dark in hopes of waking up early in the morning. I woke up right around the time of first light. There was enough of it I could walk down to the river without the aid of a flashlight, and there was enough that I could see my breath on that cold morning air.

I looked down the river and towards the east and realized the weatherman was right. Today is not going to be a real good day for photography. The cloud bank had already rolled in and there wasn’t going to be any chance of getting photos of that orange ball rising above the river.

Just to prove that you shouldn’t count out a day because of the weather… One of the shots from that morning turned out to be my favorite shot of the trip. I have it posted nice and large below.
After photographing the morning glow over the river I packed it up and headed home. I figured with the heavy cloud cover the photography wouldn’t be that great. The colors were really muted and everything looked dull.

I won’t say the highlight of the trip, but definitely the funniest part of the trip was when I was driving out of the woods. There was a little clearing off to one side of the logging road I was on. In this clearing was a pickup truck with a trailer and the ramps were down on the trailer. I had seen some deer stands while I was out scouting the area so I just figured it was a deer hunter. Then once I got about even with his truck I had to stop because there were some deer in the road. This was maybe 50 yards from this guy’s truck. Maybe he should have just stayed with the truck. LOL

I thought about getting out and leaving him a note… but I was laughing too hard to bother. Once they cleared the road I headed on home.

The Cossatot River is a beautiful place, and if you ever get the time head over to it to see for yourself. The area I explored was north of the Cossatot State Park and mostly north of the Cossatot Falls.