Hwy 20 shots

Highway 20 Shots

Hwy 20, also known as the "North Cascades Highway", is a very scenic route through rugged mountain terrain that crosses west -- east the Cascade mountain range in Washington state. Some of Washington's most scenic mountain territory can be witnessed while driving this road.

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1 shot taken in May 2006 HWY 20 above Diablo Dam.

2 shot taken in May 2006 HWY 20 below Gorge Dam on the Skagit River.

3 shot taken in May 2006 HWY 20 below Gorge Dam on the Skagit River.

Notes:

All three photos above were taken hand held using a 24-120mm Nikkor zoom lens mounted to a Nikon D70s digital slr camera. The day was overcast offering --even-- if lackluster light. The Deer photo came about as a surprise. I had just made a U-turn on hwy 20 to head back toward Seattle when 3 deer appeared before me. Photo 1 is the cleanest of the photos I took of these Deer. I believe the specie is Black Tail but I may be mistaken.

Photos 2 and 3 are below Gorge Dam on the Skagit River. Location is just east of Newhalem where the river snakes its way through a very deep canyon. There is some physical risk involved in the two rock photos since these are below the dam, which may open its spill-ways at any time without warning. Considering this I took the shots hand held from a distance and ready to climb back up to the road. What interests me about the 2 rock photos are the inclusions seen within the rocks. Initially I just thought there was some interesting composition potential, but when I looked at the photos in Photoshop the textures inside the rocks became obvious. Photo 2. What is that sediment/ooze that has apparently run down and then hardened over the large boulder...? Looks 'man caused' to me but I'm no geologist. Photo 3. I thought there was interesting composition here but the inclusions within the rock, seen later, are what really interest me.