Tag Archives: travel

Bridge at Hecata Head

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Highway 101 passes Hecata Head and crosses a river before entering a tunnel through the cliffs.  The bridge is a pretty elegant structure.  Unfortunately, winter is not a good time to try and photograph it.  It is tucked in amongst the hills and the sun will only be on it when in the west and probably only in the middle of summer when it gets a lot further north.  I had to work with what we had in the shade.  Playing around with exposures and working with some HDR processing did allow me to bring a bit more punch to the shots which I felt represented more of what I actually saw while I was there.

Hecata Head Lighthouse

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Head south along the coast from Yachats and you have a steady stream of gorgeous locations.  One of these is Hecata Head.  The treacherous nature of this part of the Oregon coastline means a string of lighthouses were built at intervals to ensure coverage and Hecata Head was one of those locations.  The lighthouse is still there and it a popular tourist attraction.

You approach the lighthouse from the beach below, as would the original residents in the days when Highway 101 didn’t exist and boat access was the main way there.  The houses for the keeper and assistant keeper were halfway between the beach and the lighthouse itself.  The keeper’s house is now gone but the assistant keeper’s house is still there and is fully maintained.  You can rent it out for events if you wish.

The location of the lighthouse itself provides a commanding view of the coastline and out to sea.  Whales migrate along the coastline here and there were people keeping watch for them while we were there.  If you head a bit further south on the highway, you get to an overlook which allows you to see back to the lighthouse and you see just how rugged the location is.  I imagine building everything there was no small feat and neither was living there year round.

Atlanta Marriott Marquis Architecture

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I was in Atlanta on work for a few days and the Marriott Marquis hotel was the center of a lot of the events I was involved with.  I had not been to this hotel before and I had no idea what it looked like. Externally, it looks a little different but not particularly interesting.  However, the interior is a very different story.  For a while when I was first in there, I didn’t realize just how dramatic it is.  Then I looked up!

The atrium runs the height of the hotel and the floors gradually taper in towards the top.  The curved patterns of the floors look like the ribs of an animal.  From the ground looking up, it is amazing.  There is an area in the lobby with a small roof so you can be under there and have no idea.  Then you step out and have a “wow” moment.  From the top floors, looking down is just as incredible.  If, like me, you are not partial to heights, it is rather scary.  I did have to look though.

 

Tumwater Canyon

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Our trip across Stevens Pass ended just short of Leavenworth.  We took a run along the river through Tumwater Canyon.  Here the river sits in the bottom of the valley and the road runs alongside it.  Plenty of nice views of the river as it winds its way downhill, some of which you can only see as you drive along the road because there is no space to stop.  Other locations, though, do provide an area to allow you to pull off and wander around.  Given how pretty it is, you are not alone in these places!

The river widens out in places and then narrows in to some rapids in others.  On a sunny day with the fall foliage around, standing by the water and watching the swirling and tumbling flows is really relaxing.  The noise of the water can drown out the traffic passing not far away and you can be quite mesmerized.  If you don’t mind the close proximity to the traffic, you can also explore a little in each direction away from the parking and get some great new views of the river.  You are either walking alongside the road or outside the barriers and close to the edge of the river so paying attention is a must!

One downside to the popularity of the place is that it is a bit tricky to avoid having lots of people in your shots.  You can move away a little and have them out of sight.  Alternatively, a little careful selection of your angles and shooting location and they can either be cropped out or cunningly concealed behind some other part of the scenery.

Iron Goat Caboose

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The old path of the railroad across Stevens Pass has been abandoned and replaced by a new route that is lower down and has tunneled through sections of the mountains to avoid the tricky climb that was previously required.  This abandoned right of way has been turned into a trail called the Iron Goat Trail.  Since it is a railroad trackbed, it is not a steep trail which means that a substantial portion of it is actually wheelchair accessible!

Our day out did not include time for hiking but the trail looks well worth exploring and, come the spring, we shall be making a specific trip to go hiking.  We did stop at the parking lot to read the signs about the history of the pass.  Also, an old caboose is kept at the entrance to the trail and I figured it deserved a shot!

Sunset on the Mountain Tops

The view from our hotel in Whistler towards the mountains was really pretty but never more so than when the sun was setting.  A couple of evenings I thought I should get a shot but was either elsewhere or too slow.  I did manage to get out there one time though, although I was still a little late.  The shadows were creeping up the lower slopes of the mountains but I still had the nice color on the summits.  The warm, evening light was really appealing and mountains look good at the best of times so this was a great scene to see.

Lost Lake

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Lost Lake is a within walking distance of the center of Whistler.  The trail from the town takes you along the river.  Once you get to the lake you can take a walk around the perimeter.  There is a beach area that is at one end of the lake that was a popular spot that day.  (You can park there if you don’t feel like a walk from the town.)  While the temperatures were not that high, a couple of people were even making use of the clear skies to do some sunbathing!

We too an alternate route around one side of the lake.  A trail was named the Upper Panorama Trail so we took it.  I think we were justified in assuming that this route would give us an elevated view of the lake.  I’m not sure if there were spots that you could see the lake if you went off the trail but, from the trail itself, we were deep in the trees the entire time.  There was no view of the lake from up there.  It was a good walk though and an opportunity to walk off some of the bakery goods we had been sampling!

Deception Falls

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We almost missed Deception Falls.  I had put it in to the GPS when we headed across US2 over the Cascades but the GPS had picked up on the place I marked and decided an alternate road would get us close.  It did but on the wrong side of the road and that had a benefit we hadn’t anticipated which will be the subject of a separate post.  However, we had missed the falls and we continued on our way east.

When we made the return trip, as we got closer to the spot I had marked, we realized it was coming up and started to debate whether to stop or whether we were happy to continue home.  We debated for a while over this but, as we got closer, the sign came up for Deception Falls and, since we were there already, why not just stop.  Thank goodness we did.  The falls are really cool and they are right next to the road.  The level of effort is virtually zero for a great result.

The falls run under a bridge which you can cross but, aside from looking upstream and down from the bridge, it is worth looking through your feet.  The surface of the bridge is metal grate which allows you to watch the water tumbling beneath your feet.  On the other side, you can walk along a path that runs up alongside the flowing water.  You are so close to the water, you feel like you are almost in it.

Steps take you up to nearer the top of the falls where you can watch the water crashing down over the rocks.  All of this is just a few steps from the parking lot.  It is very impressive (and rather popular) so definitely worth the time.  We came away wondering how easily we could have bypassed this location and what we would have missed if we had done so.

Whistler

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I have put together some posts of things we saw during our Whistler trip but not much of the town itself.  It is a nice place to hang out.  Like a lot of these winter sports resort towns, the center is predominantly restaurants/bars or places to buy clothing/sport gear.  However, it isn’t a bad place despite that.  The streets are laid out so nothing is too straight which means you feel like you are wandering around an old place, even if it is all relatively recently built.

There are water features and bridges, open spaces, sculptures and other forms of art.  No shortage of people, too, even in the shoulder season when we were there.  We found so great places to eat and some less inspiring ones.  We actually went to a chain place one evening and it proved to be better than some of the supposedly nicer spots.  Our favorite by far, though, was a bakery that had every conceivable thing you could want.  They even had a cheese sandwich for toasting that looked like it would feed a family of four.  We tried many of their treats but that one was left untouched, despite me giving it some serious consideration.