I captured this image near the top of Little Stony Man in Shenandoah National Park. It was a cool and wet day. The weather nearly caused me to cancel my plans but I’m glad I didn’t.
Continue reading “Hiking In The Rain”Hiking In The Rain
Mysterious Forest
It’s notoriously hard to get a good weather forecast for Shenandoah National Park. The park is over 100 miles long and the closest cities and towns are at least 1,000′ lower than the ridge line.
I checked the weather before leaving home. The forecast for a nearby town was for partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the upper 70’s. There was a slight chance of rain so I grabbed my rain jacket on the way out the door.
As I reached the foothills of the mountains it began to rain. “Not to worry,” I thought. I had my rain gear and the trailhead is 20 miles north of the entrance station. The weather there could be completely different.
I entered the park in a steady rain with temperatures 15 degrees lower than I expected. The drive to the trailhead was mostly inside clouds intent on shedding their moisture as they crossed the Appalachian Mountains.
When I arrived at the trailhead the rain was slow but steady. Having already driven over two hours to hike this trail, I decided to don my rain gear and make the best of it. As they say “there’s no bad weather, only bad gear.”
About 15 minutes into my hike the clouds still enshrouded the mountains but the rain had stopped. The vistas I came to see were clouded in but it was still a good day and left me with a reason to come back another time.
There weren’t many dramatic views that day but the weather gave the mountains a peaceful and mysterious quality.
Weekly Photo Challenge H2O: Fog Lifting
This is my submission for the Weekly Photo Challenge: H2O.
The Golden Gate Bridge partially conceals itself as fog lifts from the San Francisco Bay.
Foggy Morning in the Neighborhood
The trees, silhouetted by early morning fog, make the houses seem small and almost insignificant. A neighbor’s porch lights offer the only evidence anybody else might be awake. Within an hour this scene will be transformed into a more familiar arrangement. It might be months or even a year before it looks like this again.
Ravages of Time
The old brick and concrete bridge piers stand across the James River as a testimony to the ravages of time. They once provided safe and easy passage across the river and now serve merely as roosts for water fowl and baron outcroppings for pioneering vegetation.
Autumn Morning Fog on the James
This photo was taken about 30 minutes after sunrise on an early December day. Our neighborhood was shrouded in fog and I hoped to capture it hanging over the river. Normally fog clings heavily to the river but this day was different. I was a little disappointed but enjoyed this view from one of Richmond’s many bridges over the James River.
Solitary Cypress
This cypress tree stands alone, out in the water. I shot this picture at sunrise from about 300 yards away. The fog drifted around the tree as the sun slowly swept it away. As the light and fog were continually changing, I kept shooting and ended up with this image, where most of the fog is between the tree and the shoreline, highlighting it’s isolation.