McCloud & Mt. Shasta

I recently took a trip to the area where I grew up. The McCloud-Mt.Shasta area

of Southern Siskiyou County in Northern California.

As you may have heard there where and are a number of wildfires occuring

in the area. The smoke was in fact very, very heavy at times. That limited

my photography to mostly close up subjects.

I tried to get above the smoke by going to the Mt.Shasta Ski Resort, about 7,000 feet.

I couldn't get above the smoke even at that height. A little lower I 

stopped to finally eat some breakfast and was pleasantly surprised.

This is one of the first 'Flowers' I found. 

You'll notice the name is Wild Carrot. Not sure why, but.......

It has another name, 'Queen Anne Lace' just like the one below. 

Yup, the one above is sans flowers, it's after all the petals are gone.

I also saw a number of  butterflies fluttering about. None very

cooperative for a photographer. Except this one. Have you ever 

tried to look up the name of a butterfly. There are thousands if not 

tens of thousands, so I titled this one appropriately 'Butterfly'

I also had a hard time identifying a couple of wildflowers. I couldn't figure out

if they were a variety of Aster or Daisy, so I named the first one......

Aster

and the second one

Daisy

I decided to take a walk along the McCloud River Loop from Lower Falls

to Upper Falls, about a mile or so hike. 

While taking the next photograph a gentleman came up and asked if I

had found something interesting. After my reply he in turn replied 'Oh, that's nice' 

some people just don't get photographers. 

There are a lot of deer around the McCloud. They keep the berry population very well

in check. I found this one large bush and could only find one berry on it. I thought

that was pretty cool so.............

Gotta love that macro lens

This butterfly was fairly cooperative. It would fly just ahead of me, let me get close 

and then take off again. This happened several times until it took off into the deeper woods.

The smoke seemed to lessen in the wooded environment. Probably because you couldn't 

really see that far. Anyway it allowed me to get this shot of Middle Falls as you approached it.

At Lower Falls there is the Fowler's Campground. As you might expect there

are a number of natures creatures waiting for a handout. This is a Golden Mantle Squirrel,

 not a Chipmunk. The coloring, striping and area of the country are different.

I tried again to get above the smoke by going up to the old Ski Bowl, higher and at

a different location than the Mt.Shasta Ski Park. No such luck there either.

Near Mt.Shasta is a cinder cone named Black Butte. It is significantly smaller than the mountain.

Coming down from the mountain I turned a corner and spied this. 

I stayed in this spot for some time. I couldn't tell you how long, just 

watching and photographing as the sun set through the smoke and clouds.

A couple of other cars stopped nearby for a few seconds or minutes and

quickly drove on. They missed a great show.

Go, See, Enjoy and Photograph

Dave