Fresno Trip - Stage 1 The Klamath National Wildlife Refuge

A couple of weeks ago Ann and I made a trip down to Fresno for the next stage of decision-making for the Sportsmobile. Because it had been a year since our last real photography trip (our trip to Southern Utah which I didn’t really blog about, because I’ve barely worked on the images), we decided to make a trip of it and instead of heading down for just a day, we’d extend it for more than a week.Scouting out what we could do around Fresno took some planning. Originally, this trip was supposed to take place some time in September. However, since the Sportsmobile has been delayed in arriving from Germany (demand for the 4x4 Sprinter has been high - ETA now is December), Jonathan at Sportsmobile said November would be better. The consequence of that was that some of the places we’d wanted to go deep in the mountains (such as Lassen National Park) had main roads closed. It didn’t take much though to realize that Fresno is ideally located a couple of hours from Yosemite and an hour away from Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. Consequently, the ultimate destinations were a no-brainer, the only real question is what to do between here and there?

The answer to that, at least for the going down part was to stop off at the Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. The strategy was to break down our driving into a shorter driving day, plus, we could leave after I picked Ann up from work (after taking the car into the shop to replace our sway bar connectors) and could make the short 3-hour drive to Klamath Falls before nightfall, ready to photograph the next morning before the next leg of our trip.

It had been a year and a half since we were at the Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. While we’d planned a location to photograph from, thanks to the wonders of GPS (I don’t know whether to love it or hate it), poor planning on our use of PDF maps and a sense of disorientation (who would figure that finding your way in total darkness would not be so easy) we wound up having to wing it and drove down a viewing area road (often not the best of locations) and had to make do. From there we winged it.

We got out of the car and I quickly saw a few possibilities that, while not great, would make some decent images. Sometimes you just have to make those first few images in the day knowing that they’re nothing special, but to just do it. Since this was a photography trip, I wasn’t going to waste any opportunities. So I quickly grabbed my gear and headed off into a grassy area that looked towards the sunrise, knowing there was some (although not a whole lot) of time before I’d be wanting to point my camera in the other direction.

By the time I walked over to where I had a clear view to the east, the morning was starting to show its beauty.

Fortunately, we didn’t have any contrails, which plagued us the last time we photographed here.  

And the morning light did its rapid color transformations, from casting everything in red, 

and then transforming into wondrous purples and blues, all within a matter of minutes.

In the 20 minutes or so while I was doing that, Ann looked around a bit on the other side of the parking area, but didn’t see much there of interest.  So we walked out to the viewpoint as the sun started lighting up the refuge.  It really was a spectacular site.

At first the sky turned an incredibly deep rose,

and then slowly the ground started lightening up too.

While sunsets have their beauty, there is little that compares to the wonder of sunrise. And it’s mornings like this one that make getting up so early so worthwhile. Just to be there and to be present.

After taking a few moments just to soak it in, I returned to photographing, knowing that the morning has many surprises to offer one, and that each one lasts for just a few moments. So I turned around, southward to look for Mount Shasta. It was there, well lit, but the view from the platform was less than ideal. I noticed that a path extended to a rise off to the left and headed over to it so I would be higher than the surrounding grasses.

The change in location was worth it.

I walked away from my camera to take a Facebook photograph and to record the location in the new documenting/journaling tool we’ve been using on our various devices - Day One.

And sure enough, less than 5 minutes after taking the above photograph, everything changed, which led to another image.

So different, yet again only minutes apart.

I made one last image before we decided to pack up and go scouting.

We got back out to the main road on a quest to find where we were at in relation to where we’d wanted to be. We eventually found it, but by then the light was so bright it had lost all of its lovely qualities. Plus, the water level was low and too much mud was exposed. So we got lucky in diverting to the viewpoint. Of course by then we were cold and hungry. So we scouted out a few more locations while on our way to Cinders Cafe, our choice for great breakfasts in the Klamath area, and close to the refuge!

With full stomachs and excitement for the rest of the trip, we headed onto the next leg of our adventure.