Timberline Lodge
Summer has finally reached us. We have clear, blue skies and lots of sunshine. The downside of that is there are no clouds at sunrise and sunset. That means wonderful, relaxing weather during the day and the solar panels re-charging our batteries, but we have poor conditions for shooting sunrise and sunset. Today, was one of those days.
I woke up at 5:00 and walked out for a view of Mt. Hood--beautiful, blue sky, and not a cloud in sight. It was another bald sky, and we have plenty of Trillium Lake sunrises with no clouds. We returned to bed and restarted our day a little later.
We drove up to the Timberline Lodge in the early afternoon. It reminds me of the historic, national park lodges like at Yosemite, Ranier, and Glacier. As you would expect, Timberline Lodge is at timberline, so there is an unbstructed view of the peak and glaciers of Mt. Hood. The top ski lifts are still running, and skiers and snowboarders finish one of the runs right by the lodge.
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Timberline Lodge was built in 1937 during the Great Depression as a WPA project. Gilbert Stanley Underwood who designed the Bryce Canyon Lodge, the Zion Lodge, and the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite designed Timberline Lodge. The goal was to provide as many jobs as possible for skilled craftsmen who would also train unskilled workers. Wages were 90 cents an hour for building trade laborers, 75 cents an hour for common laborers, and 55 cents an hour for unskilled laborers. The skills of the craftsmen are shown throughout the lodge in the carvings, the design, and the use of local materials that often used no nails for joining beams or structures.
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Jonsrud Viewpoint
In the early evening, we drove to Jonsrud Viewoint in Sandy, Utah. This is a classic shot up the Sandy River and the green valley that leads the eye to Mt. Hood. Even without clouds, it's still a gorgeous view. It just wasn't very photogenic. We were there about two hours, but left about 15 minutes too early. As we drove around Sandy, we noticed the alpenglow around the mountain that hadn't been there earlier. And then we reached the west end of Sandy and saw a gorgeous sunset lighting painting the western skies. It's been that kind of trip.
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