UPDATE 9-30-2015
This area is going to look very differently now. Cougar Creek fire raced through the area this summer from the south east of Mount Adams to the Northeast and up into timberline . From aerial photographs it appears there is a green edge still around this lake but that peak directly behind the lake called Little Mount Adams is mostly burned. It may be sometime before this area is open to public again and it won't look quite the same for a long time. Along the road to this lake there is tremendous scorching to the soil and black ghost forests. Mirror lake is mostly burnt crisp. If you are on Facebook, look up a page called Cougar Creek Info Page. There are many photos on the page.

UPDATE 6-15-2015
BIRD CREEK MEADOWS AND BENCH LAKE IS OPEN FOR THE SEASON VERY EARLY THIS YEAR.. IT OPENED YESTERDAY THE 14TH AND THERE IS VERY LITTLE SNOW ON THE UPPER LEVELS ALREADY, FLOWERS WILL BE EARLY THIS YEAR.

Bench Lake can be found on the Mount Adams East USGS quad topo map. Bench Lake is a lake in Yakima County in the state of Washington. The latitude and longitude coordinates for this lake are 46.1593, -121.3990 and the altitude is 4908 feet (1496 meters). More information and links on this collection description:

www.flickr.com/photos/starlisa/collections/72157624358817...


UPDATE 8/18/2011
Business is going strong with groups of boy scouts, vision quest groups, church groups, and fisherman hitting the lakes... most of the snow is gone from the Meadows trails other than a few hard patches you can walk right over. Wildflowers are getting going, very late this year but still happening.
I took a hike yesterday up the 100 (Crooked Creek Trail), along the 9 (Round the Mountain) trail, and down the Bluff Lake Trail back to Bird Lake. Roughly 3 1/2 or 4 miles of amazing beauty.

the snow was mostly gone yesterday except for the upper meadows and people have been hiking up there too, up to Mazama morraine... I did not go that high.. THere are still several patches of deep hard snow pack over the trails in the shady areas on both Bluff Lake and Crooked Creek trails, but the 9 trail through the meadows is clear with some muddy spots. Flowers are just getting going now... some sweet color at the top of the 100 trail where it meets 9... but growth is still young and small. great patch of Elephants head at the end of Bluff Lake currently in full bloom. Paintbrush and Lupine is getting some color in the meadows like around Crooked Creek Falls and the first waterfall above Bluff Lake but probably not yet in the upper meadows too much especially the trail to Hellroaring viewpoint. Most of the snow is gone off that trail by now too but still patches along the trail I hear . Penstamon both pink and purple are becoming abundant on the warm cliffs. Corn Lily is still knee high at most. a few asters, lots and lots of Valerian and fair amount of Arnica and buttercup in some areas. Mountain bog Gentian will be awhile yet.

Pretty sweet up there except for the abundant MOSQUITOS!

The lower meadows Heart Lake trail goes through some soggy meadows that are lovely now, this jewel of a trail was largely rebuilt last year, over 900 feet of new trail built by A youth group with WTA (Washington Trails Association) . The trail now crosses the spring that is the source of the creek the trail travels along for a ways. Trail head starts at the Helispot along the road to Bench Lake.

Dead Trees turned orange are more abundant than ever this year, really changes the reflections... it may never look like this photo again for a long time


The Ranger there, Richard Canapo, reminds people that going off trail is not allowed as tempting as it is.

HERE IS A LINK TO A LOVELY WEBSITE WITH LOTS OF INFORMATION ABOUT THIS LAKE
science.halleyhosting.com/nature/cascade/mtadams/places/f...

ANOTHER IS THE WTA WEBSITE WITH A BLOG AND PHOTOS FROM SOMEONES RECENT TRIP UP HERE

www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report.2011-08-09...


UPDATE 08/04/2011
Bench lake is open for this season.... the lakes will be stocked soon. the campgrounds are all open now, still a little snow up at Bird Lake and on the trails


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initial post in 2008
Yes, this area did not get hit by the Cold Springs Fire... hurrah!

This area along forest road 82 was hit in strips... green grass next to nuked looking black areas. The first thing I noticed as I started up the road towards Bird Lake was the burnt smell wafting in my open truck window... thick and strong, old smoke smell. Along the road was the occasional blackened tree, and sometimes these would be twisted and warped as they broke off and fell over. As I continued, the black areas increased until finally came a strip maybe a mile wide or less that looked nuked. Rounding the corner, I came to the unburned bridge and falls at the gate, with a burnt tree fallen down the slope almost to the edge of the falls from the low ridge above. Continuing up the slope there was another burnt strip, somewhat spotty... and gradually the smell faded and the green returned. By the time I got to Mirror Lake you could not even tell that the fire has come thru the area. On down the hill here to


Bench Lake is another world... usually at this time of year there would be numerous boaters and fishermen here, and now it is unusually quiet and especially beautiful.

However one thing I really noticed this year... the dead orange trees on the ridges above Bench Lake and other areas are even thicker as trees continue to die from Bark Beetle and Spruce Bud Worm. These dead trees that were in the fires path provided awful fuel for the growth of the fire, but the fire also helped Nature rid itself of a certain amount of this destructive pest.


Bench Lake can be found on the Mount Adams East USGS quad topo map. Bench Lake is a lake in Yakima County in the state of Washington. The latitude and longitude coordinates for this lake are 46.1593, -121.3990 and the altitude is 4908 feet (1496 meters).

Tags:   Mt. Adams Bench Lake survived the fires!!! Hurrah! Starlisa reflections volcano Washington Cascades mountain IMG_2302 The road up here is still closed specland Gifford Pinchot National Forest GPNF southern Washington State snow BRAVO Nature Bird Creek Meadows Tract D

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Sleeping Beauty dreams of fire on cold winter evenings

a shot from last March out at Trout Lake

Below are some business logo sorts of ideas, profile pics or what ever I might need one for
in my business... really this shot is what inspired the idea. any thoughts on these? I barely learned how to add writing to the image....









Sometimes different shots are posted on my facebook page www.facebook.com/pages/Starlisa-Black-Photography/1487026... so come on over and "LIKE" me there!

You can check out my most interesting photos according to Flickr right here

see my Explore set here:
flickr.com/photos/starlisa/sets/72157594588852642/

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My photos are all copyrighted, please contact me if you wish to use them for any purpose Do not use any without asking first...Thank you for your respect! IF YOU WISH TO ORDER PRINTS OF ANY OF MY WORK YOU CAN see my profile for all sorts of helpful links www.flickr.com/people/starlisa/

Tags:   Trout Lake WA USA SleepingBeautySunset_5156-20100331-2 SleepingBeauty beauty sleeping mountain Washington GPNF Gifford Pinchot National Forest

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North side of Mount Hood in Oregon, seen from near Parkdale, Oregon.. This wildfire was part of a chain of events that began with a giant Lenticular stack near Mount Adams on August 22, 2011, a weather change indicater followed by a Huge thunderstorm that rocked the Columbia River Gorge and Cascade Mountains of Washington and Oregon for hours during the night into dawn of August 26, 2011. Some of the Lightning strikes started such wildfires as this one on the north face of Mount Hood and the Goldendale Monastery wildfire of Washington.

This shot was taken just after sunset with fire glow and alpenglow lighting up the mountain and sky, and yet star trails still showed in this several minute exposure.


©Darlisa Black

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Please do not use any of my photos without my permission.
I am now partly making my living from my photography and if you would like more info
You can see my blog here \with links in the sidebar to all my sites for photography like facebook,, google+
www.starlisablackphotography.com

Currently I have a gallery show in WHite Salmon, WA at Ten Speed North coffee, and July 20th it will move to the Inn of the White Salmon. www.innofthewhitesalmon.com/





and remember... if you have not checked this out yet, My daughter who sings under the name Leannan Sidhe has her CD of her own original Celtic style music available on her website as CD or Mp3

Tags:   wildfire MountHood DollarLakeFire Oregon fire stars startrails nightshot DollarLakeFire_6825 astro:gmt=2011-09-02T03:52 Alpenglow 2011-09-01 earthandspace competition:astrophoto=2012 bestnewcomer astro:subject=stars

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NEWS UPDATE: THIS SHOT WILL BE THE COVER ON A TRAVEL BROCHURE CALLED INFINITY LOOP THROUGH CLACKAMAS COUNTY TOURISM

AM I EXCITED? YOU BETCHA! THANKS TO ALL MY FLICKR FRIENDS AND FAMILY FOR YOUR TIPS AND LESSONS AND ENCOURAGEMENT OVER THE LAST 3 YEARS THAT HELPED ME GET TO THIS POINT.

I AM ALSO VERY GRATEFUL THAT ONCE AGAIN MY BROTHER ROGER IS BACK FROM A SEVERAL DAY HOSPITAL STAY WITH PNEUMONIA. HE MISSED OUR WHOLE FAMILY REUNION LAST WEEKEND.

Original post below... maybe Nyliac was good luck, and this sale would not have happened if not for my Bro Larry bobshots!
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Mt Hood has had some lovely sunset colors lately, what a treat! This one is taken from Washington looking over the Columbia River and the city of Hood River, Oregon. Got to shoot sunset tonight with flickr user Nyliac, who is the daughter of bobshots and so I claim her as a niece! She is pretty darn good, too.... won the top prize in the Washington County Vinyard contest this last fall at age 14, I was impressed!



View my work on Darkr here Starlisa

Tags:   Mt.Hood sunset Underwood Washington MtHood-sunset_3229-4-wo HoodRiver Oregon ColumbiaRiver CRGSA volcano CascadeMountains

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Let's go THAT way, I said to Larry bobshots... I have a feeling!

and around the corner from the turn we did not take as planned, we saw the rainbow and both said.. "Ahhhhh!"

Follow your instincts, they are usually right


ROwland Lake along the Columbia River between Lyle and Bingen, Washington... the far hill is the tail end of the Syncline, or Coyote Wall, and on the plateau above you find Catherine Creek Nature Preserve. This lake is stocked with fish in the spring time and the Ospreys, Eagles and Humans have a heyday competing for the fish. I noticed this time the algae is really thick now in the lake..

This previous rainbow (below in comments) on the mouth of the White Salmon River is taken less than 10 miles further west of This one at Rowland... you can get a hint of how much the climate changes quickly from the White Salmon River Valley eastwards... from lush green ferns and Cedar Trees to rattlesnakes and Oak Trees and dry country... the White Salmon River south from Mt. Adams, and the Hood River north from Mt. Hood come together slightly offset into the Columbia RIver, and the combined valleys from Hood to Adams are the last major valleys as you drop eastward out of the foothills of the Cascade Mountain Range

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Regarding the Algae bloom... just saw a poster from Klickitat Health Dept regarding the Algae in this lake... quite toxic, both to people and especially to animals! Not recommended you go swimming or take your dogs swimming in this lake these days...

I googled the blue green algae blooms and found problems in many states and countries...
info from a CA health dept here: www.cdph.ca.gov/healthinfo/environhealth/water/Pages/blue...

here is a pdf file of the poster from our Klickitat County Dept of Health...

www.klickitatcounty.org/Health/FilesHtml/Rowland Lake.pdf

Tags:   Rainbow RowlandLake Bingen Washington Highway14 hiway14 Lyle ColumbiaRiver bobshots Starlisa Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area algae lake reflections double Rainbow sweet SayWa ExperienceWA Explore tpc tpcu14 tpcu14l4

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