Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Carbon River/Sunrise Lake - Mount Rainier National Park (Part 1)

From 7/17/2013 to 8/2/2013, I took a road trip from the SF Bay Area to Vancouver, BC, Canada. Half of the trip was spent driving up the west coast. On my trip, I visited many famous places such as Seattle, Butchart Gardens, Mount Rainier, and much more. Obviously I got many coastal shots and many places that isn't as famous. The reason I am posting it now is because the high amount of photos I took equaled a high amount of processing time. I took a bit over 2000 photos on the trip. After stitching the panoramas, compositing the HDRs, and picking out photos from the repeats, I have a bit over 1000 photos to show you guys. The photos will be split into parts. I will link you to the previous and next parts on each post just like I did with my Death Valley National Park photos and my Yellowstone/Grand Teton National Park photos. Hope you enjoy viewing this chain of posts!

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best Mount Rainier National Park photos, use this link. To view all of my day 13 photos, use this link.

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Today I have begin my photos from Mount Rainier National Park in Washington, USA. If you ever visit Washington, I highly recommend you visit this park! It is a very beautiful place. Just bring lots of mosquito repellent. I got around 20-30 bites from 3 minutes out of the car in some areas! That was not fun. Even after I used mosquito repellent, a few stubborn ones still came at me. Now some brief information about Mount Rainier. Mount Rainier is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. The volcano stands 14,411 ft (4,392 m) and is located 54 miles from Seattle, Washington. While the snow capped peak seems harmless, this is an not a dead volcano and can cause some deadly damage if it erupts.

 First off, I have some photos from the Carbon River area of Mount Rainier National Park. Our GPS took us down the wrong road to the wrong entrance. While Carbon River is an entrance to the park, it only has a dirt road to the main portion of the park. Sadly, that dirt road was flooded and washed out the the road is just closed off. At the end of the road you'll see a tiny parking lot, a ranger station, and a closed gate. 
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 46 59 30 N 121 55 39 W  

A black and white process of the photo above.  

I also shot a panorama from that spot. It was pretty early in the morning so the cloud cover on the mountain was pretty low.  

 Looking around the web, it seems the river used to be named Upthascap River but was later changed to Carbon in 1876 due to the discovery of coal along its banks. 


Another photo of the area from the same spot.  

Black and white process of the photo above.  

 After seeing the dead end, we drove back towards the main entrance of the park. This is still in the Carbon River area. I shot this from a bridge in that area. I guess this river does rise very high but it did not have much water when I was there. Not so sure why the water is brownish grey. I can't find any information on that. 
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 46 59 43 N 121 55 12 W  


Here is a photo from the other side of the bridge. Did not see the bridge's railing get in my shot... 

Black and white process of the photo above.  

I guess the national forest is open to hunting. Not sure what TOAD is though. Some sort of party? Saw a family turn and drive down that bridge. 
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 46 59 41 N 121 55 11 W  


Now I drive into Mount Rainier National Park. The water here is also brownish grey. This is a photo of the White River. 
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 47 05 10 N 121 34 19 W  

A photo of Fryingpan Creek in Mount Rainier National Park. Funny name right?
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 46 53 17 N 121 36 36 W  

Photo shot on the drive up to Sunrise. This was from the area of the overlook for Sunrise Lake. 
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 46 55 02 N 121 35 16 W  

The overview area. It was so nice... But this was one of the places where the mosquito got really bad! See my description at the beginning of the post. 

This is a panorama I shot at the view point. 


I then walk to the Sunrise Lake side and took a panorama. 
Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 46 55 04 N 121 35 17 W  

Here is a photo of Sunrise Lake. I hear most of the mosquitoes are from down there. I feel sorry for the people who actually hiked down there. Another thing you don't know about me probably is, I'm a mosquito magnet. If there are mosquitoes, they are going to bite me. LOL 

Here is a close up shot of Sunrise Lake. 

I then turned my camera up and got a photo of the beautiful clouds that was floating in the sky that day. 

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Next time I will continue with more photos from Mount Rainier National Park. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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