Klickitat Kolor

On Thursday night I drove to Trout Lake to watch my daughter play her final high school volleyball game (she’s a senior this year). Turns out the school website had an error, and the game was at Toutle Lake. Imagine my surprise when I turned up in Trout Lake to find I was the only one there . On the flip side of the coin, I camped a couple of nights there. I spent Friday photographing around Trout Lake, and yesterday drove back by looping over to Glenwood and down the Klickitat.

The color was really nice (thanks for the tip in your post Craig), probably on the tail end of peaking. Lots of yellow around Trout Lake, and with all the oak there was lots of orange (with shades of yellow and red) in the Klickitat. My guess is the Klickitat will be exceptional through next weekend, and Trout Lake will be just past peaking.

The weather was drizzly throughout. On the negative, Mt. Adams was buried in clouds and the sky was rather flat at times. On the positive, it added a misty atmosphere and really saturated the colors (I had no idea the oak could look so rich).

This is a view of the Klickitat, taken where the Glenwood-Goldendale Highway leaves the Klickitat as you head east. I would liked to have worked this view more, but clouds kept filling in the canyon and obscuring the view.

Nikon D80
Nikon 12-24mm f/4 at 18mm
1/45 at f/11 and iso100

Wow, I had no idea the color along the Klick was that intense. Definitely have to scope that out next year. Love the clouds hanging over the valley.

WOW! Incredible colors here John, it's too bad their couldn't have been a sun peek but the colors are amazing.

Thanks all! Bryan, I can't say if this year is normal, but I hope so. It's pretty amazing, and I'd like to go back myself.

I always forget that downsizing tends to close up photos. Here's a slightly lighter version, more what I was shooting for at full-size.

Either posted version is ok by me. The colors are fantastic and I like how you were able to capture the mist/clouds halfway up the hills on either side. A sun peek would have been nice but this captures the essence of the PNW so well...

it's amazing how much color the oaks have this year. they usually seem to just turn poo-poo brown and fall off.

That's a great view, John. Makes me wish I were there.

Yep, the essence of Fall in the PNW; no lemons in this shot, imo! Love the drifting clouds and the color is fantastic. Thanks for the info on local color. I'm hoping there's still some up this way to go find…? Any good leads?

I really like your compostion. I also like the clarity of the immediate foreground trees and how the rest kind of fade off into the mist. Beautiful fall image!