Stumbling on the Landscape

I guess the title here is a bit mis-leading, what I actually did was stumble on this landscape image, deep in my Lightroom Catalog. I made this photo several years ago during a canoe trip around the Savonoski Loop in Katmai National Park.

The trip started off with lost luggage and a long frustrating day in King Salmon waiting for the bags to arrive on the next flight, and then the next, and then the next. Eventually we got everything together, talked the bush pilot into a late flight and off we went. We set up tents and the bear fence in the dark and then tumbled, gratefully into bed. The next morning, a fog rose off the lake and was lit up by the rising sun. A string of glaciated volcanoes were visible across the lake, and trout rose in the calm water, leaving behind concentric circles of ripples. It was jaw-dropping amazing.

And then it all went to hell.

The rain began that afternoon and didn’t let up for 9 days.

That is a slight exaggeration, but only slight. We did get little windows of sunlight and breaks in the rain. But they were few and of short duration.

The evening I made this image we were camped in a unique place. A tiny little rock island, no more than an acre in size. We were surrounded by the expanse of Naknek Lake. It was a funky place to sleep, and kind of cool. The only vegetation were these tall grasses, and when the sun poked through the clouds just before it disappeared for the day, it lit them up in gold.

Even lousy trips have their highlights.

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