Tag: nature

Annual Camping Trip

My family’s one week camping trip to Winthrop, WA on Lake Pearrygin 

Every year during the second week of August, my family and two cousins (6 of us total) all pile in to our 1990 Volkswagen Van and make the four and a half hour trek through the North Cascades Highway to Winthrop Washington. I have been going on this trip ever since I can remember. This was the place where I learned how to fish, pitch a tent, roast marshmallows of the fire, tell ghost stories, and cherish the time spent with family away from technology. 

Here is the famous van we take when camping. Yes, it is a camping van where the top pops up creating a bed and the bench seat in the back folds out into another bed. 

This year at the lake it was really smokey from all the forest fires near by. The sun was this blood orange color at all times of the day and the temperature was way cooler than normal because of the smoke filtering the sun. Needless to say, I got some pretty cool photos because of the smoke, check them out below:

This was taken around 6 am when the sun was rising. I woke up to birds chirping early that morning so decided to go down to the dock with one of my cousins to go fishing. 
Here you can see how smokey it was camping, it was definitely pretty eerie over the lake. The smoke was so thick you couldn’t see the other end of the lake!

This trip is the one thing I look forward to every year. It is a place where I get to spend time with my family enjoying the outdoors, exploring the town of Winthrop, and unplugging from social media for a week. At first this time away from my phone was hard, but as I grow up every year I look forward more and more to this separation from technology and really cherish all the time spent talking and laughing among family. 

Mt. Pilchuck Hike

Over the summer, my boyfriend and I got into hiking and went to a few cool spots. One of these spots was Mt. Pilchuck. The hike is about 5.4 miles long and right off the North Cascades Mountain Loop Highway (which is a beautiful drive and I would totally recommend it!) At the top of the mountain, there is a fire lookout where you can see for miles. It was a little cloudy when we went, but the view was amazing! Check out some of the photos below that were taken on the way and at the top of the lookout:

  • This was taken about a mile and half away from the lookout point, I couldn’t believe how open and beautiful this part of the hike was
  • This taken on the climb up to the lookout tower. To get up to the top, you had to scale rocks like the ones at the bottom of this photo and then climb up a ladder to get into the tower. 
  • This is a photo taken inside the lookout, it was amazing how much you could see, even though it was overcast out
  • This was taken on the way down from the tower, probably about a mile or so from the top of the mountain 

Getting up to the lookout was hard, there were a lot of people on the trails, so many bugs, and it was really warm out by 10 am when we had finally climbed all the way up to the lookout. The view was so worth it though! There were many parts of the trail that were really well marked, but there were also a few parts where you had to make your own trail through the boulders and wind your way back to the marked trail. The pictures below show some of what the trail was like at different parts of the hike: 

  • Taken at the beginning of the hike, this is what the forest around us looked like
  • Here’s a little creek you had to cross over at the start of the hike, about half a mile in 
  • Parts of the trail that were well marked and easy to get across 
  • Here are the parts of the trail where you are climbing up boulders and making your own trail until meeting back up on the well marked part of the trail. This part was much easier going up than it was coming down. 

Overall, this hike was a lot of fun and well worth the trek up. I would highly recommend this spot and hope to do it again sometime! Having to climb up and over the boulders was a lot of fun and was a great workout for the day. I remember after finishing this hike being so excited to take a shower to wash away all the bug spray and sweat. One of my favorite parts of hiking in the Pacific Northwest is being surrounded by all the trees and this hike definitely delivered that.

Why Photography?

I fell in love with photography. After taking a class in high school and learning how to use a camera properly (not on automatic), learning about different shooting and framing techniques, and wondering around outside to find things to take pictures of I couldn’t put the camera down! 

I believe photography is a way to see the world through a different lens (no pun intended) and capture all the beauty that is overlooked in nature. I found my niche of capturing close ups of flowers, plants, and insects. I started an Instagram page as a place to store some of the photos I’ve taken, but it didn’t feel like enough. I thought sharing them and posting them on this blog would give them justice. Every single photo featured on this blog are photos I have taken. They all have a story and I hope to share many of those stories with those who will listen. 

Photography is a way to emphasize the things that are often overlooked in nature and I intend to bring these imperfect things to light. 

Below are some of the photos I took during my photography class: