Photo Essay: The Road to Mt. Rainier

It was a two hour trip to Paradise, the small village which acts as the base camp and visitor center to Mt. Rainier National Park. It's a two hour drive if you don't stop along the way. But who doesn't stop to see all the small towns, the scenic outlooks, the mom & pop restaurants and all the other roadside attractions and adventures that make up a road trip? Sure I wanted to see one of the largest mountains in the Ring of Fire and the Cascades, but only someone void of adventure and an appreciation of beauty would drive looking strait ahead and not notice all the natural and man made features that make a road trip fun.

I was up in the Seattle area for two weeks on a business trip. The forecast for the entire two weeks included rain or overcast skies every day. Unlike other business travelers who head to their favorite chain restaurant for dinner before retreating to their hotel room to watch free HBO the entire night and weekend, I figure it's my chance to explore and photograph the area around me. I do my research online, ask the locals and generally drive aimlessly around looking for the obscure, the random and the beautiful. Add to the fact that I knew that dark, forboding clouds would be included in virtually every shot, I decided to make lemonade with the weather lemons I was presented and use my special technique of High Dynamic Range photography to capture the scenery to the destination.

All these shots are within walking distance of Route 7 on the way to Mt. Rainier traveling south from Seattle/Tacoma. They were all taken in March of 2008.

I made it to the destination of Paradise, which was closed because it was covered in 12ft of snow. There was no Mt. Rainier to be seen, and it was desolate and abandoned. Luckily I gave myself plenty of time, and found these colorful and dramatic places on the way there.

If there is a lesson to be learned, it's this: Have a great destination in mind, but your goal should be the trip itself.