The Mountain Returns
A few days of sunshine and a long drive to Chinook Pass
I’ve wanted to get up to Chinook Pass for a few years now. It’s a long enough drive that it’s not a drive I should really do on my own. My driving skills ain’t what they used to be, and my stamina isn’t, either.
Fortunately my brother Bryan is visiting, and he and Donna came along—I did the drive to the pass, and Donna was kind enough to drive us home.
As you can see from the photo above, the views were incredible.
The view of the mountain from the east side is completely different. First of all, we were so close (about 9 miles from the peak), that the mountain looks foreshortened—you are viewing the peak from on the flanks of the mountain. So it’s not as impressively tall. We were just about a mile above sea level in the photo above. That was one of the marvelous views on the way up, just a few miles shy of the pass.
About a mile shy of the pass, we saw this view, with a beautiful rugged ridge between us and the peak.
The chimneys shown above are igneous rock that has extruded from volcanic vents. They resist erosion more than the rock around them, and form large standing ridges and chimneys. The big chimney on the left has a 500-foot vertical face on its right side. These formations are also visible in the photo at the top of the page.
I’m looking forward to a return to the Chinook pass area for more photos. I didn’t bring the Phase One camera, and I’m sure I can get some excellent wide angle and detailed photos with it. Most of these shots were taken with either the 50mm f/1.2 Sony, or the Zeiss Otus f/1.4 100mm.