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Photo by Sandeep Thomas
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Mount Hood National Forest

Mount Hood National Forest is a stunning natural wonder located in the northern part of Oregon. It is home to the iconic Mount Hood, which is the highest peak in the state and a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts. The forest is also a paradise for photographers, with its diverse landscapes that range from lush forests to alpine meadows and crystal-clear lakes. Some of the most popular photography locations in the forest include Trillium Lake, Mirror Lake, and Lost Lake, which offer breathtaking views of Mount Hood and its reflection on the water. Other notable spots include the Timberline Lodge, which is a historic landmark and a popular filming location, and the Columbia River Gorge, which is a scenic drive that offers stunning views of waterfalls and cliffs.

Photography regions of Mount Hood National Forest

Photography of Mount Hood National Forest

We do not remember days, we remember moments…
Multnomah Falls
by Sandeep Thomas

Lower part of the famous Multnomah Falls of Columbia river gorge, Oregon. Took this shot last summer when we visited the falls. This has to be arguably the most famous of all Oregon’s waterfalls as it took us two visits to get a lean photograph. The crowd here during the day time is unbelievable, we had to park a mile away and walk up to it. The second time we returned early in the morning just after sunrise and had the place all to ourselves and even managed to see some storks at the bottom pool.

On another note, due to my wife’s incredible networking skills, I will be having my images showcased in a gallery from the 7th of this month. The name of the Galley is A-Frame Hollywood and it’s located on Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood. If you are in the locality please do drop in and say hi. Thanks again for visiting, have a great Wednesday..

It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere…
Fairy Falls
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Agnes Repplier.

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One more shot of the beautiful fairy falls. For this shot I got in real close and used a longer focal length. I am a big admirer of this particular type of falls as they come our really pretty in photographs and this one is one of my favorites. I wanted a shot emphasizing the details of the moss on the ricks and the flowing water.

Hope everyone likes it, Happy Tuesday!!

The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost…
Multnomah Falls
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Gilbert K. Chesterton.

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Multnomah Falls, at about 627 ft in elevation this is one of the premier attraction of the Columbia River Gorge and attracts quite a number of visitors. It’s considered by many as the second tallest year round waterfall in the US. We passed alongside the falls on our fourth day but the parking area was packed with cars, so we decided to get back here on the fifth day after shooting sunrise at the Trillium Lake.

We reached here around 6:30 am and there was nobody around, so we took our time taking pics and enjoying a stroll to small bridge across the falls. It’s not the most photogenic of the falls in Columbia River Gorge but its stunning just to see the sheer size of this stunning waterfall.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing...
Mount Hood and Trillium Lake
by Sandeep Thomas
  • George Bernard Shaw.

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Trillium Lake is one of the best reflection pools for photographing Mt Hood. In fact, I think it’s one of those must-haves for any west coast photographer. We visited this amazing location on a beautiful summer morning hoping to get a stunning sunrise shot. We had to leave our hotel at 4 am to get to the lake in time, thankfully you get stunning views a few feet away from the parking lot. So here I was on a very cold summer morning in front of the lake just like I planned, waiting for the sun to rise when I learned that it was the wrong season. In summer the sun rises and sets in northeast and northwest respectively and I was on the southern shore of a lake looking at a mountain in the north. So basically, the mountain is in the shadows during both golden hours.

I was pretty disappointed but was determined not to show my wife that I messed up the one thing I claim to be good at, planning. So kept myself busy trying to find interesting compositions. Thankfully as the sun rose a bit warm golden light started to filter in through the sides of the mountain and melt the fog above the water providing a surreal landscape scene. I took countless shots here and posted them.

Recently I have been going over these old images and I realized while I have a lot of wide shots, I didn’t have a lit of tight crops of the scene. If I could give my younger self a bit of advice, it would be to use tighter focal lengths on scenes that tempt you to go wide. They have their own unique beauty and the detailed shots are usually not as common as wider shots of grand vistas.

I do not judge, I only chronicle...
Trillium Sunrise
by Sandeep Thomas
  • John Singer Sargent.

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Here is another sunset shot, this time from the beautiful Trillium Lake in Oregon with a great reflection of the mighty Mt Hood. For some reason I forgot to process this earlier, so I wanted to post before it fell off my radar again.

This shot was taken on a July morning so days were hot but there was still some fog up in the mountains before sunrise. There were a bunch of ducks nearby, playing along the shoreline and thus removing any hope of me having any chance of the perfect reflection shot.

It is an awesome experience to spend an early morning here watching the reflection of the sunning mountain the way morning light reflects off snow and granite. Thanks for visiting have a nice weekend..

Upper Horsetail Falls
Ponytail Falls, Oregon
by Daniel Cheong

Also known as Ponytail Falls, in the Columbia river gorge, Oregon.

Many thanks to Gary Randall for taking me there.

My website: www.danielcheongphotography.com

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White River at base of Mt Hood, Oregon
White River & Mt. Hood
by Bonnie Moreland

The White River lies east of the Cascade Range and south of the Columbia River Gorge. Originating on Mt. Hood, the river flows for approximately 53 miles to its confluence with the Deschutes River just above Sherar's Bridge. All but the 0.6-mile-long section at White River Falls is designated wild and scenic. The uppermost area hosts an active fumarole field named "Devil's Kitchen" at the White River Glacier and immediately below a mixture of andesite, dacite flows with pyroclastic and mudflow deposits, known as the "Old Maid" flows. These flows occurred about 260 years ago and buried a forest on the slopes of Mt. Hood. Recent downcutting by the White River and its tributaries has exposed portions of this "Ghost Forest" along with several of the Old Maid flows in a sequence of terraces along the valley edge upriver from the Highway 35 crossing. I am shooting this very near the parking lot on Hwy. 35. In fact I am standing under the bridge. I probably should have come out in April to have photographed more water in the river.

Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven…
Mount Hood from Lost Lake
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Henry Ward Beecher.

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Though I try to post at least one image to my Flickr page every day, it has been demanding schedule to adhere to, especially after starting a new job and uprooting my family halfway across the United States. But recently some events happened in my life that threw the habit right out the window. My wife and I were expecting our first-born child in October of this year, but she decided to come in early, and that pretty much threw our lives into a bit of chaos. All our carefully established schedules were gone in an instant. Our time is mostly spent in and around the NICU for about three weeks. But now that my wife is back home recovered and with the baby doing good, I thought it would be an excellent time to start again on my old routine. I also cannot wait to take her with some of our photo trips.

Tamanawas Falls, Oregon
Tamanawas Falls, Oregon
by Bonnie Moreland

Tamanawas Falls is a popular waterfall on the east slope of Mount Hood, along Cold Spring Creek. The falls plunge a sheer 109 feet over a columnar basalt in a broad display that can stretch to 45 feet across at times. Tamanawas Falls was originally known as Giffords Falls, after photographer Benjamin A. Gifford, whose photos documented the falls in 1909 - whether he should be properly credited with discovery or first documentation of the falls is not known. The current name, derived from a Chinook (shin-nook) word which means "friendly or guardian spirit" was officially adopted in 1971.

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality…
Mount Hood from Lost Lake
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Plutarch.

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One of the coolest events that you can see as a landscape photographer is the morning glow on the peak of a mountain. Not being a morning person, I used to completely ignore sunrises when I started in favor of the more comfortably timed sunsets. I reasoned that both are golden hours with warm side-lighting, so I was not missing out on anything by choosing to forego sunrises. That plan lasted until I saw the first light hitting a mountain peak. The first time it happened was in the White Mountains of NH. While it is true that both sunsets and sunrises have warm golden side lighting, it’s a whole different atmosphere during sunrise. Somehow it's quieter, purer and more intimate.

The challenging part for me was to capture the mood and feeling of a mountain sunrise. I struggled quite a bit with the post-processing as well. First, I tried the HDR route and it did not work at all, the images looked artificial ad forced. Then I happened upon an article about Ansel Adams and his processing techniques. It was interesting to learn that Ansel meticulously processed his images, and one of the key elements from the article was that Ansel stayed away from global edit and preferred treating highlights and shadows differently. Until then, I thought the fault was with my photography technique, but I realized the problem was with my editing process. I started watching tons of processing videos online and adjusted my processing workflow to include the usage of luminosity masks. Luminosity masks helped me in isolating my processing for highlights and shadows. And the images started to look better. The last step of the change was to take the images that will work with the processing technique to get the result that I had in my mind. The approach changed from getting a perfectly balanced exposure to getting shots that collected the correct information that’s needed to create the final image. Now, this might seem too mechanical, but the tricky part is picturing the result while you are frantically trying to capture the stunning that lasts a few seconds.

In the next few days, I will be posting images taken a few days apart at various vantage points near Mount Hood. This shot was taken at the perfect moment when the beauty of the light was at its peak. I knew I had to get the details of the very soft light right to get the scene right, so I sacrificed a few shadow details for the final image to work. I could have bracketed the image and made the trees brighter but that would have looked unnatural and distracted from the main subject of the shot.

There is no remedy for love but to love more…
Mount Hood from Lost Lake
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Henry David Thoreau.

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After our Oneonta gorge adventure we had planned on going to Lost Lake to get a better side of Mt hood. But we seriously under estimated how far the location was and how difficult it is to find some locations in Oregon. Finally after hunting through some winding un paved forest roads we reached the lake but could not find a good location with a nice enough view of the mountain.

Finally my wife had enough of all my maniacal driving around and decided to ask a camp employee. Interestingly it was his first day on the job but unlike me he knew what he was doing and directed us to a nice location where we could watch the perfect sunset lighting the mountain in vivid colors. We were in a bit of a hurry reaching this location but had an awesome time shooting and enjoying this great sunset. Hope you all like it..

Frog Lake, Oregon
Frog Lake, Oregon
by Bonnie Moreland

Frog Lake Campground is located east of Government Camp on Mount Hood just off of Highway 26. While it is not far from the highway it is shielded well from engine noise and is named after the many, many frogs that make this area their home. The southside of the lake has a nice little picnic day use area that delivers amazing views of Mount Hood. Frog Lake provides several activities including fishing, hiking and swimming. The lake sits at an elevation of 3800 feet.

It's a mystery to me just how that lavender became so pronounced when I posted it here on Flickr. On my regular photo program on my computer the lavender is more pale.

Trillium Lake
Mount Hood and Trillium Lake
by Daniel Cheong

I am currently in Portland, Oregon and truly enjoying landscape photography! I also met a long time flickr friend, David Gn who took me to several great photo spots including this one.

This was shot with my new camera, the Nikon D810.

My website: www.danielcheongphotography.com

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A man is only as good as what he loves…
Mount Hood from Lost Lake
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Saul Bellow.

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One of the most interesting things about nature photography is seeing nature’s wonders at its best possible lighting. This is one of those images I made of Mt Hood from Lost Lake, framing wise id did nothing just basically pointed the camera at the mountain at shot the image.

The interestingness in this image is the light and I had nothing to do with it other than capture it with a camera and my wife who shot the same image with an iPhone managed to get an exceptionally great picture too, so it’s not about the camera or post processing. It’s all about finding a good view and sticking with it until nature begins the show.

Hope you all like it have a nice day..

God sleeps in the minerals, awakens in plants, walks in animals, and thinks in man...
Fairy Falls
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Arthur Young.

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Another shot from the beautiful fairy falls inside the Wahkeena canyon. The hike towards the falls is pretty steep in parts and it will be a little testing if you haven’t hiked in a while. I don’t know who thought of this but there is a beautiful wooden bench just to sit down and enjoy the falls and its brilliant. We spent an hour here relaxing and enjoying near freezing water spray on the hot summer day.

This was my absolute favorite waterfall from our Oregon trip. Hope you all enjoy the picture as much as we enjoyed these falls. Thanks for visiting.

Wahclella Waterfall, Oregon
Wahclella Falls
by Bonnie Moreland

waterfall along the Columbia River Gorge

It always seems impossible until it's done…
To paint is a possessing rather than a picturing…
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Nelson Mandela.

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One of the few characteristics of mine that surprises my wife is how I transform myself from complete couch potato to hyperactive outdoor person the moment we are on one of our photo trips. In our last trip to Oregon, we averaged about 5 miles of hiking a day with at least 1000ft in elevation gain. One of the pains of hiking after not being active is that you increase your chances of getting hurt, add to that about 6-7 lbs worth of camera gear and you are really pushing it. So during the Oregon trip, my wife made me buy a lightweight hiking bad and I wrapped my trusty old D800 and Nikkor 24-70 f2.8 in a shawl wrap for our hikes. And boy am I hooked, the lightweight bag was a breeze to carry on my back and if you don’t consider the damn mosquitoes trying to lift you away, provided a quite enjoyable hike to the Tom Dick and Harry Mountain.

You can see 5 mountain peaks from the top of Tom Dick and Harry Mountain and these are the main four, the fifth one is more to the south and is diametrically opposite this view.

Tamanawas Falls, Oregon
Tamanawas Falls, Oregon
by Bonnie Moreland

Tamanawas Falls is a popular waterfall on the east slope of Mount Hood, along Cold Spring Creek. The falls plunge a sheer 109 feet over a columnar basalt in a broad display that can stretch to 45 feet across at times. Tamanawas Falls was originally known as Giffords Falls, after photographer Benjamin A. Gifford, whose photos documented the falls in 1909 - whether he should be properly credited with discovery or first documentation of the falls is not known. The current name, derived from a Chinook word which means "friendly or guardian spirit" was officially adopted in 1971.

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see…
Upper Multnomah Falls
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Gilbert K. Chesterton.

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Multnomah Falls is the tallest waterfall in Oregon at 620ft and has an often-disputed claim as the 2nd tallest year-round waterfall in the United States. I am not sure about the height of the falls, but it is, without a doubt, one of the most recognized waterfalls. Even the folks who haven’t heard about the falls instantly recognize the shape, two-tiered structure, and the viewing bridge across the falls. I was somewhat surprised by the tiny viewing area for such a famous waterfall and soon realized that the available compositions are limited.

After taking the customary shot at the base of the falls, we hiked up to the viewing bridge, and I managed to make an image that I have not seen before. This composition is of the upper part of the Multnomah Falls from the viewing bridge. I like this composition a lot and felt this was a fresh look at this majestic waterfall without the elements that make it familiar.

Wahclella Waterfall, Oregon
Wahclella Falls
by Bonnie Moreland

waterfall along the Columbia River Gorge

Advice is like snow - the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind…
Trillium Sunrise
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

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Mt Hood must be one of the most photogenic mountains peaks around. There are mountains higher and mightier, but Mt Hood had the perfect conical shape with pretty good vertical relief and lots of beautiful alpine lakes around it that provide tons of places to capture the elusive alpenglow.

This shot was taken at the beautiful Trillium lake campground during a summer road trip of the Oregon State. While Planning for the trip, everything I read about this location mentioned it being an excellent spot for sunrise in spring, fall, and winter. Unfortunately, during summer, the sun rises behind the mountain, leaving most of it in the shadows. This was disheartening to learn, but we had limited options. After toying with the idea of abandoning the location for a sunrise shot, we decided to make a morning of it and visit the lake.

That decision to stick with the original plan turned out to be one of the best decisions of the trip. We drove from Portland that morning and reached the lake well before sunrise and found the right amount of fog on top of the lake surface. As expected, the mountain was in the shadows during the first light, but as the sun rose more, the light started to filter over the tree line. The fog began to rise, and we had in front of us a truly stunning sunrise scene of Mt Hood and the Trillium Lake. I exposed the shot for the brightest light in the scene and let the natural beauty of the landscape take over. The results were better than any image I had in my mind while we were planning the trip.

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire...
Mount Hood from Lost Lake
by Sandeep Thomas
  • William Butler Yeats.

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This is another old shot from our trip to Oregon two years ago. This shot was taken at the Lost Lake campground which has a superb view of Mt Hood, especially at sunset in summer. We had just finished hiking Oneonta gorge and were extremely tired. Moreover we didn’t knew of the exact location on the lake shore where we wanted to be.

Thankfully my wife had the presence of mind to ask a camp employee who directed us to the location which had a good view of the mountain. I was a bit skeptical about getting a good sunset shot here as the whole sky was cloudy. But just as the sun was in its final minutes, it started illuminating the mountain in intense pink and red lights and treated us to a show. I used a 2 stop ND grad filter here to even out the exposure and get color on the mountain. Hope you all like it and thanks for visiting.

Gorton Creek
Gorton Creek
by Michael

Another photo I took back in may during my two week west coast trip. This is a little cascade along Gorton Creek in the columbia river gorge. A very green place :-)

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us…
Trillium Sunrise
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Socrates.

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The beautiful trillium lake, I believe this was the first shot I took when we reached here. The sun has not yet risen completely and there was fog covering the lake bed and some of the forest trees. They looked so soft and beautiful, it never fails to amaze me how good a place looks with beautiful complimentary light.

I have read at many places that summer is not the most optimal time to visit this location as the sun doesn’t light up the mountain properly. I can’t wait to visit this place again when the lighting gets better.

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see...
Trillium Sunrise
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Henry David Thoreau.

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Another panorama shot from the beautiful Trillium Lake. This one is made stitching together about 16 shots. I love how absolutely still the water for this shot, believe me with amount of ducks in the water that was a rarity. I also glad how the clouds came out in this shot and how they form a nice clam shell with the shoreline.

Thanks for visiting, hope you enjoy this shot..

Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time…
Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time…
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Voltaire.

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Fairy Falls is a tiny little fall that’s tucked inside the beautiful Wahkeena canyon. And the Wahkeena canyon is one of the hundreds of small canyons created by streams that flow into the massive Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. Now usually these canyons will have a massive waterfall right on their entrance and these waterfalls are usually the more famous than the small ones inside. But there was a reason why my wife and I did the hike that day to the little fairy falls. This fall is a perfect example of a fan-shaped waterfall and its setting is inside the most vibrant green foliage you have ever seen.

When we got to the falls what stood out was how tiny it actually is and I got the image I always pictured of the stunning Fairy Falls. While hiking back from the falls I started to notice the beauty of this little canyon. There was this spot where the trail crossed the Wahkeen creek and the moss covered rocks and trees provided a stunning contrast to the brilliant greens of the foliage. I was not as skilled with the filters back then so the highlights are a bit blown but overall this is one my favorite images from our trip.

Multnomah Falls, Oregon
Multnomah Falls
by Yi Jiang

Multnomah Falls is a waterfall on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge, located east of Troutdale, between Corbett and Dodson, along the Historic Columbia River Highway

Elowah Falls, Oregon
Wahclella Falls
by Yi Jiang

Elowah Falls was a very nice 289ft waterfall situated in John B. Yeon State Park towards the eastern end of what we perceived to be the "waterfalls area" along the historical highway detour of the Columbia River Gorge.

Memory always obeys the commands of the heart…
Mount Hood and Trillium Lake
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Antoine Rivarol.

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After so many desert pictures in the recent days I wanted to post something green and while going through my old shots from 2014 I came across this beauty which was taken at Trillium Lake in Oregon just after sunrise. The view of Mt Hood from this location is spectacular especially in the mornings with misty Lake Trillium in the foreground.

I had noticed these three rocks in the lake while we were scouting the location and wanted to use it so badly in a shot. Took this one pretty late during sunrise and the light was coming in strong over the mountain. Hope you all like it happy Friday..

Horsetail Falls, Oregon,  in autumn
Horsetail Falls
by Bonnie Moreland

One of several falls along the Columbia River Gorge. After seeing this one once, it will stick in your mind forever. It is pretty much the epitome of the Horsetail form. There are views from 180 degrees around the falls, and some glimpses over the top from Horsetail Falls Trail #438 which leads to Ponytail Falls, its upper counterpart. The falls are commonly said to stand 176 feet tall, but some sources placed its height at 208 feet.

Autumn arrives in early morning, but spring at the close of a winter day...
Punchbowl Falls
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Elizabeth Bowen.

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Punch bowl falls, located at Columbia River gorge, Oregon. This was the second shot I made at the location after our extensive hike. Compared to the drought ridden California, Oregon’s rivers had good water flow so I had to settle for a shot from far away. A bunch of kids actually swam across to the closer vantage point but one of the unfortunately could not swing back due to hypothermia and had to be evacuated that day. So I am quite glad that I didn’t try to get deep into the water.

Thanks for visiting and have a great day..

The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there…
Mount Hood from Lost Lake
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Robert M. Pirsig.

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While continuing with the sunrise theme, today's shot was taken just a few minutes after the shot from yesterday’s post. The ambient light got a whole lot brighter with colors getting a lot less vivid. Ambient light change means the shutter speed is a lot faster making the motion in water more pronounced. At this stage, I used a 2-stop ND grad filter to balance the difference in light.

Another important factor for a good sunrise shot is the post-processing. When I started, I used to heavily process my images, trying my best to make HDR images look realistic. Then I got introduced to luminosity masks and it truly changed my post-production workflow. Another change I adopted was to embrace the shadows, HDR processing lightens the dark parts of the image. The shadows and the dark parts of the mage make the bright vibrant colors stand out more.

Trillium Lake, Oregon
Mount Hood and Trillium Lake
by Bonnie Moreland

Trillium Lake is a lake situated 7.5 miles (12.1 km) south-southwest of Mount Hood in Oregon. It is formed by a dam at the headwaters of Mud Creek, tributary to the Salmon River. It was created by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife in 1960.

The area which is now the lake was part of the Barlow Road, a component of the Oregon Trail. A log road across marshes allowed immigrants to pass to Summit Meadow, which was a toll station from 1866—1870. Trillium is a genus of flowers particularly noticeable in the area.

The lake is popular for fishing, camping and photography, often clearly reflecting Mount Hood. The lake is a very popular Nordic skiing destination from a trailhead across U.S. Route 26 from Snow Bunny.

So the story with this image. I had been to Trillium Lake 3 times. First time it was loaded with people on the lake. Second time I got there early hoping for good light, which there was, but it was also windy and the reflection wasn't as good. Third time no people and calm across the lake but the sky was nondescript. So I have combined the second visit sky onto the third visit lake.

During all these years there existed within me a tendency to follow Nature in her walks…
Wahkeena Falls
by Sandeep Thomas
  • John James Audubon.

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The first time we visited Oregon’s beautiful Columbia River Gorge we were spellbound by its beauty and by the sheer number of waterfalls. We went on so many hikes the week we were there that we got our 10k steps in without any effort. This photo is taken at the stunning Wahkeena falls. This hike started out as just a trip to Fairy falls but we ran into this beautiful fall on the way. Later I learned that this fall is tough to photograph and while I took 3 – 4 images I didn’t get a composition that I liked. So, I didn’t post the image at the time. Recently I was going over some of my old images as part cleaning up my storage when saw this image. I decided to process the photos and see if I could get some interesting images.

Processing wise I boosted the contrast a bit and cropped out some of the bottom parts that were too distracting. I wish I had spent some time here looking for some more interesting compositions.

Multnomah Falls, Oregon, in the autumn.
Multnomah Falls
by Bonnie Moreland

We are at the peak of color change here in Oregon. Got to Multnomah Falls at sunrise. There was a light mist but the leaves where glowing. My camera isn't quite enough to encompass the full falls so I stitched together the top and the bottom of the images I took.

The waterfall is accessible from the Historic Columbia River Highway and Interstate 84. Spanning two tiers on basalt cliffs, it is the tallest waterfall in the state of Oregon at 620 ft (189 m) in height.

The falls were noted in the journals of explorers William Clark and Meriwether Lewis during their expedition through the Columbia River Gorge in 1805.

To paint is a possessing rather than a picturing…
To paint is a possessing rather than a picturing…
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Philip Guston.

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Our first foray into Oregon was during a road trip to northern California. I had just moved to the west coast and we planned a week long road trip to visit the famous redwoods of northern California. This trip was the first time we visited the less populous eastern side of California as well. We drove up highway 395 all the way north to Lassen and then crossed over to I-5 exploring the beautiful countryside of Mt Shasta. From there we were to take some local roads to the coast and drive the rest of the way north on Highway 101. Well at least that was the plan when we started from Los Angeles. Near Mt Shasta we learned about how close we are to Crater Lake National Park and decided that such a stunning spot warrants a visit. So, we kept on driving north instead of crossing over to the coast and visited the stunning National Park that’s home to one of the most enigmatic lakes on the continent. At the Park visitor center, we learned more about the Cascade mountain range and about Mt Hood.

Oregon’s sheer natural beauty won us over and the very next year we planned a road trip that covered most of the top locations in the state. And two years later we were back, this time we planned to hit some of the tougher locations like this one, on top of Tom, Dick and Harry Mountain that’s afforded us a stunning sunset view of the majestic Mt Hood and reflection lake. We did the trip in summer and the hike up here was brutal, not due to the trail being particularly difficult, but because of the mosquitoes. We were pretty covered up, but they were relentless up to a certain altitude, thankfully close to the top as we kind of reached above the tree line they magically disappeared. We had the entire spot to ourselves as the sun started to set and light up the mountain in warm golden light. The mosquitoes were tough, but it was worth it for this view. I hope to one day come back here on a beautiful winter morning.

Ponytail Falls, Oregon
Ponytail Falls, Oregon
by Bonnie Moreland

AKA Upper Horsetail Falls

We grow small trying to be great…
To paint is a possessing rather than a picturing…
by Sandeep Thomas
  • E. Stanley Jones

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Another shot of the Majestic Mt Hood from the top of Tom Dick and Harry Mountain. The view of the Cascade Range from this location is truly superlative. I have seen countless shots taken from here and say with 100% confidence none of them truly will capture the grandness of this stunning place and the amazing five peaks all around that are visible from here.

We had to endure a mosquito-ridden 4-mile hike to get to the top and almost race down before the available light completely went away. Even though we were sore all over from mosquitoes virtually devouring us, this was one of the most fun hikes we did on that trip.

Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion…
To paint is a possessing rather than a picturing…
by Sandeep Thomas
  • Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

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One of the most stunning views of the beautiful Mt. Hood is from the top of one of its foothills, the Tom Dick and Harry Mountain. This had to be one of the hardest hikes we have ever done not because of distance or elevation gain but because of the damn mosquitoes. They were everywhere constantly buzzing and hovering over our heads and biting as they please. Plus the added weight of the camera gear didn’t help either. Thankfully my wife convinced me to ditch my full gear and just hike with the bare essentials and a use a lightweight hiking bag, which made it a lot easier. But the constant presence of mosquitoes kind of robbed the fun off the trail a bit.

We forgot all that though once we reached the top and saw the view of the 5 peaks which are visible from this summit, bathed in golden light. The sunset gave us an unbelievably pretty light show before we hurried back off the mountain. One of my favorites from the trip.

Boat dock, Lost Lake, Oregon
Boat dock, Lost Lake, Oregon
by Bonnie Moreland

Lost Lake is a lake in Mount Hood National Forest. We have to identify it as the one in Hood River County because we have more than one Lost Lake here in Oregon.

The lake is bounded on the east by 4,468-foot (1,362 m) Lost Lake Butte and on the southwest by 4,556-foot (1,389 m) Preachers Peak. The lake is fed by three unnamed intermittent creeks from Lost Lake Butte, and Inlet Creek from Preachers Peak. The lake maintains a very consistent level via an outlet at the north tip, the source of Lake Branch Hood River, a tributary of West Fork Hood River. It is the second-deepest lake in Mount Hood National Forest after Wahtum Lake at 167 feet (51 m).

Oneonta Hiking Trail, Oregon
Oneonta Hiking Trail, Oregon
by Bonnie Moreland

I am saddened to discover this tunnel was destroyed in the Eagle Creek fire in Sept. 2017. I am glad I got to see it before the damage.

Thanks to all Phoide contributors to Mount Hood National Forest!
Most notably Sandeep Thomas, Bonnie Moreland, MURALI NARAYANAN and Daniel Cheong.