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Here are some miscellaneous photos from my hikes around Letchworth State Park in Upstate New York, including high-vantage-point views of the gorge and the Middle/Upper Falls area, as well as shots from the Great Bend Overlook area.
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These photos are from my hike along the Sun Point Nature Trail in Glacier National Park, as well as from Sun Point itself, overlooking Saint Mary Lake, where, for the third year in a row, I encountered engagements and/or wedding photo shoots at a national park, one of which is featured in this collection.
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After spending a couple of days in Angel Canyon at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, the next leg of my southern Utah tour sent me north to stunning Bryce Canyon National Park. These are the photos I shot upon reaching the floor of Bryce Canyon after descending the Wall Street arm of the Navajo Loop and before ascending back up to the rim via the Queen’s Garden trail. The entire loop is nearly three miles, with the floor portion of the trail taking you through a pine forest. It rained a bit when I reached the bottom with some thunder in the distance, but most of the hike was pleasantly sunny and took about three hours, counting photo/lunch stops.
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These photos are from my hike along the Middle and Upper Falls of Letchworth State Park in Upstate New York. As I’ve mentioned before, Letchworth is one of my favorite parks, rivaling some of the national parks in splendor.
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Greetings, readers, it’s been a while, but this post is hopefully the start of my renewed dedication to this blog.
Back in September I took another trip out west, this time to Glacier National Park and then Seattle. The photos below are from my final hike on my last day in Glacier. I had almost quit the Avalanche Lake Trail before the end because it was late in the day, the woods were getting dark, and I was hiking through grizzly country with very few other hikers on the trail, but I’m glad I stuck it out because the reward at the end was more than worth it: a pristine hidden lake casting a perfect mirror image of the earth and sky above, including a pair of waterfalls in the distance.
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The photos below are from my visits to Cape Enrage and Fundy National Park on August 29, 2016.
My wife and I first drove to Cape Enrage, where we enjoyed a delicious lunch next to the lighthouse before taking a walk around the grounds. They have rappelling and ziplining at Cape Enrage, but unfortunately the zipline from the cliff down the the beach was closed due to the wind. Bummer.
After leaving Cape Enrage we drove to Hopewell and hiked out to the beach among the famous rocks at low tide (this experience will be recounted in a forthcoming post).
During our hike back from the beach at Hopewell the skies opened and drenched us, but by the time we got back to our chalet in Alma, it was sunny again, so we headed out to nearby Fundy National Park for an early evening hike along a small waterfall trail. It was beautiful, like a stroll through Middle Earth, and peaceful—we had the entire trail to ourselves.
Later that evening we enjoyed one of the best pasta meals I’ve ever had (yes, in Canada!) at a place called An Octopus’ Garden Cafe. Pasta is made fresh with sauce customized exactly how you want it (I chose a spicy red sauce). Highly recommended. I would make a trip back to Alma just to eat there again.
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These photos are from my September 2015 visit to Letchworth State Park in Upstate New York, covering my hikes of the trails leading to the stone footbridge across the Genesee River, the Lower Falls, and down to the floor of the gorge at the site of a lost town called St. Helena. Despite not being a national park, Letchworth is among the more beautiful American parks you’re likely to visit.
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Knowing that Portland was only a 90-minute drive to Mount Hood, I couldn’t resist spending my final night in Oregon at Timberline Lodge near its summit. The lodge was made famous by The Shining—Kubrick used exterior shots of the lodge to depict the Overlook Hotel. Although the interior was not used in the film, Timberline has fully embraced its Shining legacy, as some of the photos below make clear.
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On my way from Portland to Mount Hood I decided to take a detour to view the majestic Multnomah Falls. It was well worth the trip, though I narrowly avoided a situation that could have left me stranded there all day. As one of the photos below shows, a pair of RVs got themselves stuck together on the narrow road leading to the main parking lot, creating a massive traffic backup in both directions. Had I arrived earlier, I might have been stuck on the wrong side of that jam. Luckily, the RV crunch happened before I arrived, so I parked further away near a smaller waterfall and hiked to the main falls. I didn’t have time to hike up to the bridge but I got a few nice shots from below.
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The RVs were still stuck together when I left, causing traffic to back up past my car, so I had to wait for someone to let me out before I could turn the car around and leave, but it could have been much worse. I felt sorry for everyone who was stranded there because it did not appear that those RVs were getting unstuck anytime soon, but I made it back to the highway and was soon on my way up to Mount Hood.
One great aspect of Portland is its proximity to both mountains and beaches, either of which are just a day trip away. Although I didn’t have time to visit the Oregon coast on this trip, I did make the 90-minute drive up to Mount Hood, where I spent my final night in Oregon at Timberline Lodge near its summit. The lodge was made famous by The Shining (more on that in a later post). These photos are from my drive up to Mount Hood and my hikes around it.
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Michael Rappa 