Archive for the ‘Backpacking and Hiking’ Category
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
A tourist hiker stands beside the shores of Moraine Lake and watches people canoeing on the lake The grand scenery of Moraine Lake and the Wenkchemna Peaks, or 10 Peaks at Moraine Lake make the area a popular tourist destination for hiking, canoeing, photography and adventures. Hiker, Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. Click the image to see how good I look in red.
hey Folks
I was scanning through some images recently and stumbled on to this one. Here’s me in stunning mauve at Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, in Alberta Canada.
Most photographers know how much difference putting a person or 2 in the photo can make to the salability of an image. And adding some color makes a difference as well.
But the image must tell a story. For stock photography, the more generic the story might be, the more possible different uses it might have. This could be a tourist, a hiker, someone lost, a photographer, etc. It could even be someone advertising Arcteryx jackets.
But the real story of this photo, for me, is my first time to Moraine Lake. I spend a whole day just soaking up the grandeur of this place. I can think of very few places that are so simply pretty as the Canadian Rockies. They’re almost picture perfect. Many other places have a wonder all their own, and I’d never forsake the wildness of Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, for example, for the Canadian Rockies. But for sheer ‘hop out of the car and be amazed’ classical mountain beauty, the Canadian Rockies have it going on.
I’d been to Jasper National Park a few times, photographing wildlife there. I’d driven through Banff in order to get to Jasper. And I’d thought to myself ‘wow, Banff is pretty’ more than once. But the first time I drive up to Moraine Lake, got out the car and walked over to the lake, it just floored me. I walked along the lake’s edge, and sat and stared at everything. At the detail or these incredible peaks above me, the silence of the montane forest, and that water. That amazing water. It just absolutely blew me away.
They day was cloudy, it was early in the summer, and few people were around; those that were had taken rental canoes out on the lake, and I had the shoreline pretty much to myself. So I just sat and soaked it in. If you ever go to Banff National Park, and I recommend that you do, at least once in your life, give yourself plenty of time up at Moraine Lake. It takes time just to see it – you can’t stand at the overlook, glance around, and see it all. give yourself a day, and embrace the place. Your life will be richer for it.
More photos of Banff National Park.
Cheers
Carl
Tags: Alberta, Banff National Park, Canada, Carl Donohue, hiking, Moraine Lake, Skolai Images, tourist
Posted in Adventures, Backpacking and Hiking, Banff National Park, Canada, Lakes, Landscape features, Mountains, People, Photography, Travel | 2 Comments »
Monday, January 18th, 2010
Skolai Pass, Hole in the wall rock formations, glaciers, Wrangell-St Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. The flowers you see here are (white ones) Mountain Avens (Dryas octopetala) and Dwarf Fireweed (Epilobium latifolium)
Hey Folks,
It’s always nice when a magazine editor wants your photo for their story, and you get published. But it’s WAY nicer when you get published in a magazine you enjoy, read and value. This image posted here is in the current edition of backpacker magazine, page 65 – full page vertical, which is nice. The image accompanies an article on backpacking “the Goat Trail”, in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve. This was the first route I ever hiked in Wrangell – St. Elias, and definitely a favorite of mine, so having my image chosen to accompany the story represents much more than just another published photo and a check to me.
It’s also cool for me because a few of my friends are published in the same edition of the magazine. It’d be remiss of me not to mention Bret Edge, Jon Cornforth and Ron Niebrugge, all of whom are photographers I admire. T (more…)
Tags: Alaska, Carl Donohue, Hole in the Wall, Landscape features, photos, scenics, Skolai, Skolai Pass, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Backpacking and Hiking, Cool stories, Landscape features, Mountains, Summertime, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 9 Comments »
Friday, December 18th, 2009
Hiker on the Bremner Mines to Tebay Lakes backpacking, Wrangell St. Elias National park and Preserve, Alaska.
Hey Folks
While I’m working on updating my website, I stumbled on this image from our Bremner Mines to Tebay Lakes trip a few years ago. That little rocky outcrop has this big crack right through it, so standing on the boulder was somewhat …. uhhhmm .. mad. That drop off goes all the way down to the Little Bremner River below. Still, that’s what Texans are for, right? 
Mark was good enough to stand on it while I snapped a few photos.
This is one of my favorite hikes, and I’m aiming to do it again this coming summer, 2010. If I ever get done with overhauling this darn website. Pesky stuff.
Cheers
Carl
Tags: Alaska, Alaskan Alpine Treks, backpacking, Bremner Mines, Carl Donohue, glacier, hiker, hiking, images, National Park, People, photos, Tebay Lakes, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Backpacking and Hiking, Glaciers, Landscape features, Mountains, People, Summertime, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 1 Comment »
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
Hiking in winter snow along the rim of the Kuskulana Gorge, Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Click the image to see a larger version and just how styling I look in my fat eVent jacket.
Hey Folks,
I thought this might be a good photo to accompany a post plugging my friend Ron Niebrugge’s new site Outdoor Gear Deals. Why? Because I’m looking so p-h-y-n-e in my flash orange jacket that you can clearly see the need for staying on top of fashion, even in the wilderness – ESPECIALLY in the wilderness. A while back some of the outdoor online retailers started running a “Deal of the Day” on their websites to draw traffic – offering some pretty good prices and great deals from time to time. As that marketing strategy has burgeoned, Ron did the world a favor and compiled a webpage that shows a bunch of these “Deals of the Day”. I’m sure he’ll add more sites to the page as time permits.
(more…)
Tags: Alaska, Carl Donohue, equipment, gear, Kuskulana Gorge, outdoors, Ron Niebrugge, sales, snow, Winter, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Backpacking and Hiking, Miscellaneous, Winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
Early morning photo of Denali, Or Mt. McKinley, and reflection in a small tundra pond, Denali National Park, Alaska. Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.
Hey Folks,
A few years ago I spent a glorious week in Denali National Park and Preserve, camped out in the backcountry at one of my favorite spots to hang – a high ridge to the north of Denali, or Mt. McKinley as it’s officially known (see this post for a discussion concerning the name of the mountain). After too many years and way too many footsteps across the tundra, I finally happened to be in the right place at the right time. Previous trips had me wet, cold, hungry, and wondering where this infamous mountain actually was (hidden, veiled behind the infernal clouds). This one was gloriously different.
So just how much do I like this little spot? Well, in 2007 I took my mum and dad to Denali National Park and Preserve on their trip to Alaska and force-marched them up over the hills and across the tundra to this pond one afternoon. It’s a pretty spot to sit on the tundra, have some lunch, look for wildlife (we saw caribou) and soak up the mountain’s grandeur. They had a grand time. (more…)
Tags: Alaska, Carl Donohue, Denali, Denali National Park, Denali National Park and Preserve, Fall, horizontals, Landscape features, Mount McKinley, Mountains, Mt. McKinley, photos, pond, ponds, reflections, scenics
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Backpacking and Hiking, Denali National Park, Landscape features, Mountains, Summertime, Travel | 6 Comments »
Friday, November 13th, 2009
Tallest peaks in the University Range, Mt. Churchill and Mt. Bona rise dramatically from Russell Glacier, catching the last rays of the day, Fall colors in the foreground, Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, Alaska.
Hey Folks,
Here’s an image that I am amazingly lucky to have made. Probably luckier than I deserve to be. Not because of the luck involved in catching this scene like this; this image has been a long, long time in coming. The scene is taken from the south end of Chitistone Pass, near Skolai Pass, Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, Alaska. I’ve spent more time here than I probably should admit to, waiting, hoping and wondering if I’d ever actually happen to catch it in the light that I knew graces these peaks from time to time. Finally, this September, I was up there with our phototour and we were really blessed with some great weather. I was giddy with excitement and I’m sure the folks along on the trip were wondering just what they’d got themselves into. Within 20 minutes of landing we’d already found and photographed a Least Weasel, which I’d never had the opportunity to photograph inside the park previously. Next up we ran into some Woodland caribou, apparently the only woodland caribou herd in Alaska, so that was pretty awesome. Then we saw some Dall sheep rams, and managed to stalk up on them a little. Next up was sunset, (more…)
Tags: Alaska, alpenglow, Carl Donohue, Chitistone Pass, colors, Fall, fall colors, glacial, Glaciers, horizontals, ice, Landscape features, Mountains, Mt. Bona, Mt. Churchill, photos, Russell Glacier, scenics, Skolai Images, sunset, University Range, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Backpacking and Hiking, Cool stories, Fall, Glaciers, Landscape features, Mountains, Photo Tours, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 5 Comments »
Friday, October 9th, 2009
Hey Folks,
Here’s another photo from our backpacking trip to Skolai Pass early in September. We had a few nice cold mornings, and before the sun popped up I made a few images of the frosty tundra. Let’s see how many plants readers can identify in this image?
Cheers
Carl
Tags: AK, Alaska, Carl Donohue, cold, frost, images, photos, tundra, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Abstracts, Adventures, Alaska, Backpacking and Hiking, Fall, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 6 Comments »
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
Hey Folks,
This one is for my buddy Mark Vail, who I know has to be getting a little homesick right about now. He’s been gone from his home a few days.
“A few days??”, I hear you ask, “that’s nothing!”
Well, sure it is – to most people. But most people don’t have this view by the trail to their crib, either.
Fireweed Mountain and a perfect reflection in a small pond, right off the McCarthy Road, taken this last fall, on the end of our Skolai Pass photo tour. Inclement weather suggested we fly out a day earlier than planned, and we made the best of the following morning (which was, of course, gorgeous weather) with some fall colors along the McCarthy Road. You might recall some scenes of Fireweed Mountain in the winter I posted in the past.
We commented on the difference between roadside photography and backcountry photography. One noticeable difference is how nice it is to pull up the vehicle at a likely spot, hop out, scout out some compositions and then start photographing, with the doors to the van wide open and some killer tunes from the ole iPod rockin’ our world as we clicked and clicked away. I think we were listening to Emmylou Harris as we shot this, “Where Will I Be”, from Wrecking Ball. Great album!
We actually had a great day shooting, and got some nice images – markedly different to the high open alpine stuff we’d been photographing up at Skolai Pass the day before. The contrast in scenery was fun, and the colors were great.
I’ll try to mix in some more images from that trip here as I go through my new collection of bear photos from the recent Katmai trip.
Cheers
Carl
Tags: AK, Alaska, boreal forest, Carl Donohue, Fall, Fireweed Mountain, images, Landscape features, McCarthy Road, photos, reflections, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Backpacking and Hiking, Fall, Forests, Lakes, Landscape features, Mountains, Travel, Trees, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 8 Comments »
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
Hey Folks,
I just got back from a totally awesome trip to Skolai Pass – some great weather, wonderful folks for company, and we all had a killer time in the coolest place in the world – Skolai Pass! This image was taken the first evening, after we backpacked up to Chitistone Pass, walked south to the Russell Glacier, and watched the alpenglow rock Mt Bona (on the right) and Mt Churchill (center).
The rest of the trip I hiked around the area and had a blast. I didn’t hardly shoot anything, of course, because my *#^$$*#^# camera ceased working the following morning. One of the people on the trip was kind enough to let me use his backup camera, which was WAY cool. Thanks Doug!
Always have a backup camera body with you.
Cheers
Carl
Tags: AK, Alaska, alpenglow, alpine, Carl Donohue, Fall, Landscape features, Mount Bona, Mount Churchill, photos, Russell Glacier, scenics, tundra, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Backpacking and Hiking, Fall, Glaciers, Landscape features, Mountains, Travel, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 5 Comments »
Monday, August 24th, 2009
Hey Folks
I apologize for the long delays in posting here – it’s been busy this summer, with backpacking trips, and I really haven’t taken the photos I was hoping to, either. Either smoke from numerous wildfires, bad timing, or bad weather have made the summer not a great one for me, photographically, so far. Hopefully that’ll change a little as fall approaches.
This is a grizzly bear that I’ve observed in the Skolai Pass the last few years – I saw him as a younger, immature or subadult, in 2007, again last year and this year back in July. (more…)
Tags: AK, Alaska, bears, Carl Donohue, Grzzly bears, images, mammals, national parks, photos, Ursus arctos, Wildlife, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, Wrangell St. Elias
Posted in Adventures, Alaska, Backpacking and Hiking, Grizzly Bears, Summertime, Wildlife, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park | 6 Comments »
