Smith Rocks State Park
Today was moonset at sunrise, one of my favorite times to photograph. I love shooting the setting moon over mountains or other formations bathed in the warm sunrise light. Planning to be in the right place for moonset at sunrise is one of my first research tasks for every trip.
My alarm went off at 3:20. I hate traveling in the summer when sunrises come in the middle of the night. I much prefer the spring and fall when sunrise is more like 8:00 than 5:20.
I forced myself to get out of bed, gathered up all my gear, and then VERY carefully loaded everything into Ruby (my Explorer) without setting off the alarm. The alarm on my remote is very sensitive, and I've set it off twice on this trip. It's one thing to have it go off in the afternoon and quite another to have it wake the entire area at 3:30 a.m.
I had the roads to myself, so I drove the 35 miles in about 40 minutes and reached Smith Rocks about 45 minutes before moonset. That gave me plenty of time to check out the locations I researched and decide where I would shoot. That's when I realized the ridge behind me was a lot higher than I expected and would prevent the sun from reaching the ridge where the moon was setting. There would be no warm light for moonset. That meant huge light contrast issues again and a lot of extra time in Photoshop to get good images.
The moonset only took about 15 minutes once it approached the ridge. The sun didn't top the ridge behind me for about 90 minutes, so there was lots of time to kill. Two other photographers arrived to shoot in the same area while I was setting up. The lady was one of the people we saw shooting in the meadow the night before. The other guy lived in a senior living residence and was the expert on eagles in the area. He had the most AMAZING eagle pictures I have ever seen--amateur or professional. It sounded like he comes to Smith Rocks several times a week with his Nikon camera and 600 mm f4 lens. There is a nest at the top of a ponderosa pine that he shoots from the cliff side with two adults and two fledglings who area ready to leave the nest any day. He had images of the two parents, images of the young, and several images of the parents in flight. But the most amazing image was the female carrying a yellow-bellied marmot to the nest. Marmots are the size of small dogs! And every one of his images were absolutely tack sharp. They were amazing. He told me he prints his images and gives them away because he doesn't have room for them in his small residence. Wow!
When the sun cleared the ridge, I went back to photographing from the top of the canyon. The warm light was long gone, but it was still a beautiful area. I drove over to the main parking area and hiked down to the bottom of the canyon. My goal was to get Smith Rock and Shipwreck Rock from lots of different angles and areas. I was only going to hike to the bottom and then come back out. But once I was at the bottom, I loved the Crooked River flowing through the lush riparian environment and decided to hike the River Trail. It was a great choice. The trail was level and smooth, and every turn provided a new view of the river and the rock formations.
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I was the first person in the day use area when I arrived about 4:30. About 8:00, I noticed the parking areas were starting to fill with climbers and runners. I was very surprised by the number of people who came to Smith Rocks to run the trails. The trail into the canyon is wide, smooth and steep. The Misery Trail to the top of Shipwreck Rock is CRAZY steep, narrow, and rough. I can't image running up that. I met one guy that was starting up Misery Ridge and then I met him again after he had climbed the ridge, topped out on Shipwreck Rock, ran on a trail behind Shipwreck Rock, and crossed a lower pass to drop down to the River Trail where I saw him again--and he wasn't even breathing hard.
There were people of all ages running the trails. But most of the people on the trails were climbers. Most were in groups of 3 - 5 and in their 20's. There are entire books on the climbing routes at Smith Rocks. The climbers were everywhere on the shaded side of the ridges. The most amazing climber was a little girl that looked like she was about 5 or 6. I met the little girl and her parents walking on the trail and noticed she was carrying a climbing helmet, but I didn't think too much of it. On my way back on the trail, I saw her climbing a rock face. Her father and mother were both climbers and were providing encouragement and guidance. She was amazing.
By the time I got back to the car, it was 9:30 and I was ready to drive back to camp. I'd already been up for 6 hours and it was only 9:30. On the way back to camp, I discovered how beautiful some of the homes and ranches were that I passed earlier in the dark. Several of the ranches seemed to be hobby ranches with huge, gorgeous homes.
When I got back to camp, I downloaded my images and then went back to bed. I was wasted for the rest of the day.
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