With 2024 just a month away, I decided to pencil some time to create a calendar that captured memorable places that I had the opportunity to explore over the last 12 months. They predominantly feature scenes from the Pacific Northwest which I am blessed to call as home. But it also includes many places off the beaten track for most, including the remote National Park of the American Samoa, the Caucasus mountains of Georgia and the swamps of Congaree.
And as I do every year, I want to dedicate this calendar to the incredible people at the Sierra Club Foundation which helps protect our public lands and waters. All proceeds will be donated to this organization so that their journey can continue. You can buy this calendar at this link.
This image that you see is the January photo of the calendar.
Tahoma State Forest
WA USA
The border peaks
On the rugged terrain on the border with Canada are a set of three iconic peaks: Mt Larrabee, the American Border Peak and the Canadian Border Peak. A sunset view at any time of the year is spectacular. But at the right time of the year, the juxtaposition of colors, snow and light make for a memorable scene. Hope I can get to experience this once more before the season ends.
Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest
WA USA
Entering Fall
Who is ready for fall in the PNW? This transitional time of the year, though short, has some of the best color palettes. Golden larches, orange and red shurbs, grey granite and blue-white snow all come together in a wonderful symphony of colors. And even though I sometimes wish it can stay like this year around, it is the fleeting nature of the colors that make it special.
Hope you get to enjoy the colorful foliage this time of the year. Check out WTA for ideas on where to go.
Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest
WA USA
Ushguli Skies
While I was standing in the dark on top a small hill in the town of Ushguli, trying to compose this very image, I felt a small nuzzle on my legs. I turned around and it was a stray dog. Not just any stray dog, but one that I had fed a few cookies earlier in the day while hiking on a trail a couple of miles away. How it found me in the dark so far away from where I had seen it earlier is a mystery that may be hard to solve.
It just lied down beside the tripod quietly. And it didn't want anything. Just a few pets and scritches. I can still picture that scene, a mutt with floppy ears lying down and watching walk back and forth on that small hill under a moonlit sky. It was one of the friendliest strays I had ever met.
After finishing this star-trail shoot, I headed back, wondering if I would ever see that mutt again. And to my surprise, it showed up just as I was about to board the van taking me away. I almost wanted to bring it with me...
Ushguli
Georgia
The Sierras of Washington
I hardly expected to see a granite landscape in the PNW. The unique geology of the Cascades means that most of the granite is covered under thick layers of sediment, and only gets exposed in the higher elevations (unless its not already covered by snow, glaciers or even older metamorphic rocks). The Alpine Lakes Wilderness is one of the few regions in Washington where it does become exposed.
Climbing up to this point took me to a wonderland quite reminiscent of the granite escarpments of the Sierra Nevadas. I was in a region with glistening blue lakes surrounded by tall cliffs, craggy rocks and snow-capped peaks. I can't wait to explore more of this region before the season ends.
Alpine Lakes Wilderness
WA USA
The Medina
My heart goes out to the people of Morocco who have been affected by the terrible tragedy that occurred last week. During my travel there, I was struck by the kindness and hospitality, the richness of their history, and their way of life rooted in tradition. Walking around the medina was an experience where all my senses got overwhelmed: the fragrant smells of spices, the dine of the street hawkers, the colorful fabrics, carpets and leather goods and so much more. I can only imagine how terribly these places were impacted.
The people of Morocco are resilient. I hope they pull through this difficult time.
Marrakech
Morocco
The mountains of Georgia
I felt at home in the mountains in Georgia, watching the clouds play with snow-capped peaks, admiring massive glaciers carving endless valleys, and exploring tiny villages in the alpine environment. While mountains might be everywhere, it felt special here. A bit more rugged, unexplored, and hard-to-reach, but all the more beautiful.
Here are some of the scenes I captured in the Caucasus mountains of Georgia.
Caucasus
Georgia
Alone with the Stars
It was silent up there. Every rustle from the pine trees, every hoofbeat on the meadow, every chirp of the grasshopper were as loud as the crack of a bullet. But this silence let me focus on the beautiful night sky above me.
The sky glittered with the light of a million stars. The occasional meteor from the Perseid shower sped across this sparkling dome in a brilliant scintillating flash. And behind this, the bright band of the Milky Way arched across, a highway from earth to the heavens above.
Moments like these make me realize that we are but an insignificant mote in the vastness of space. And out here, in the PNW, such moments are rare to come by. I am glad I could be in wilderness on nights like these to enjoy its dazzling splendor.
Mount Rainier National Park
WA USA
The Core of Novarupta
Most people associate Katmai with its famous grizzles. They are the star of the show, after all. However, there is an entirely different aspect to the National Park that very few people get out to explore.
In the summer of 1912, this park lay witness to one of the largest volcanic explosions of the century: the Novarupta explosion. It created an umbrella cloud 1000 miles wide, and expelled thirty times as much ash as Mt St Helens, lowering earth's temperature by more than a degree. The ash flow piled 700ft deep into the glaciated valley which now resembles a moonscape. This is the Valley of the 10000 smokes, so named for the innumerable fumeroles and vents that were observed in the aftermath of the explosion.
This valley is like no other: a vast ash-strewn landscape with nary a sign of vegetation stretching for miles into the horizon. The distant glacier-covered volcanoes are a reminder of the active nature of this region. In the late afternoon light, I snatched a few telephoto images of this mountainscape to capture the interplay of shadow and light.
Katmai National Park
AK USA
Waiting for Dinner
When do you decide from being a spectator to becoming an active participant? When it comes to wildlife, my principle is never (interfere). But there are times which have come close to testing it. This was certainly one of them.
Out at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, it was still early in the season. The salmon still hadn't started their upstream migration to their spawning grounds. They were waiting patiently in large numbers at the mouth of the river for some hidden signal that only they knew. The grizzles had just come out of their long winter hibernation, looking both famished and tired. The salmon is a key component of their summer diet, and the ursine population needed every salmon they could get their paws on; it was the only way to recover from the lost reserves.
And so, this year, the grizzlies waited at the same spot they wait every year. They were hoping to catch their break-fast, a feast of juicy salmon. However, with the slow run of the salmon, they just kept waiting in the cold waters of the river, looking sad and forlorn. 634 Popeye ( I think ) was one of them, and every spectator out on the deck felt so sorry for this guy that we all contemplated just feeding him a salmon from the store. Thankfully our better instincts (and a warning from the ranger) prevented us from doing so. So all we could do was just watch nature take its course.
Katmai National Park
AK USA