PINNACLE GLOW

After a steep hike and short bushwhack up this extremely rugged mountain in the Tatoosh Range, I began to break above the treeline. In the distance, I began to see glimpses of Mt. Rainier through the trees. After climbing another 500 feet upward and crossing a couple rapidly flowing creeks, I came to a small basin which gave me a clear view of the mountain and the wild lupine in full bloom across the mountainside! I hurriedly began to make my way upward a few hundred more feet to the upper benches where the lupine grew thick and above the shade of the setting sun. The warmth seemed to glow right through the flowers and the sky began to literally explode with color! The scene was so breathtaking that it was all I could do to sit myself down to compose the shot and within moments, it had faded as the shadows swallowed the light. Times like these, I marvel at the gift of my eyesight and my health to reach and see such natural beauty and how it abounds in these wondrous places on this incredible earth.