An Afternoon Romp in the Mountains
Took off with my buddy Richard today and walked around in the mountains to try out my brand new 40D (:barb) and got a few shots to share. Wish you could all see these places yourselves, but for now I'll just do what I can to bring you there. 
This is my first outing with a DSLR, so feel free to drop advice if any springs to mind!
We paused beside a small beaver dammed pond at the start of our wanderings. I spent a while trying to learn all those fancy new dials and buttons... I've got a loooong ways to go!
From there, we wandered up into a boulder field, into the millions of rocks time has piled for us, and traveled over, under, and through them, enjoying ourselves thoroughly. Here, Richard follows me up a huge boulder from the inside.
The top of the crack opens into smaller chunks of the same boulder. When this rock came off the mountain forever ago and landed here, it split into quite a few pieces, and yet stayed piled in a recognizable boulder shape, jutting out a good thirty feet above ground.
Richard enjoys a flowery bed of moss in the shade of Pinnacle Peak. We started hiking for a distant ridge, but figured at our pace we'd better aim closer and turned our sights on the Webfoot Prospect, a smaller, steep ridge that shoots off perpendicular to the road we drove up on.
In among these house-sized boulders are passageways and small caves you can work your way through. At this exit, we had traveled perhaps fifty or sixty feet down and at least that much horizontally, and found light gleaming in through this slot. There were easier exits higher up, of course, but where's the adventure in that?
Richard eyes me dubiously after watching me squeeze my way to open air.
He made it through too... in time. :rofl
Heading up the ridge, I paused for a quick portrait as I was getting a good distance ahead and had the time to fiddle with all my new settings.
We topped out on a ridge for this shot, then dropped off the other side and began a liesurely meandering route through piles of ancient relics from the mining days, down the mountain and back to the car.
The mines have gone to pieces some since the '30s. Outside the mostly caved-in entrance to this shaft there's a beast of a water pump that boggles the mind when you try to figure out how they got it there. :huh It's the size of a car, has metal wheels, and sits on a flattened spot in a literal mountain of boulders. Those guys had to be tough... Next to this unnatural contraption sits a bucket of nails, but with the wooden bucket long since rotted away and mere rust holding the nails together in their cylandrical pile. :scratch
We traveled a good distance into this mine shaft, and eventually turned back, instead of climbing over a large cave-in and exploring further into the mountain. The rotted timbers and numerous minor cave-ins to this point are not confidence inspiring! :rofl
Fall is here, the leaves are yellow, and winter is only two weeks away. Gotta get out and enjoy the snowless mountains all we can, before we're forced to strap boards to our feet, pile on more clothes, and enjoy the snow!
This is my first outing with a DSLR, so feel free to drop advice if any springs to mind!
We paused beside a small beaver dammed pond at the start of our wanderings. I spent a while trying to learn all those fancy new dials and buttons... I've got a loooong ways to go!
From there, we wandered up into a boulder field, into the millions of rocks time has piled for us, and traveled over, under, and through them, enjoying ourselves thoroughly. Here, Richard follows me up a huge boulder from the inside.
The top of the crack opens into smaller chunks of the same boulder. When this rock came off the mountain forever ago and landed here, it split into quite a few pieces, and yet stayed piled in a recognizable boulder shape, jutting out a good thirty feet above ground.
Richard enjoys a flowery bed of moss in the shade of Pinnacle Peak. We started hiking for a distant ridge, but figured at our pace we'd better aim closer and turned our sights on the Webfoot Prospect, a smaller, steep ridge that shoots off perpendicular to the road we drove up on.
In among these house-sized boulders are passageways and small caves you can work your way through. At this exit, we had traveled perhaps fifty or sixty feet down and at least that much horizontally, and found light gleaming in through this slot. There were easier exits higher up, of course, but where's the adventure in that?
Richard eyes me dubiously after watching me squeeze my way to open air.
He made it through too... in time. :rofl
Heading up the ridge, I paused for a quick portrait as I was getting a good distance ahead and had the time to fiddle with all my new settings.
We topped out on a ridge for this shot, then dropped off the other side and began a liesurely meandering route through piles of ancient relics from the mining days, down the mountain and back to the car.
The mines have gone to pieces some since the '30s. Outside the mostly caved-in entrance to this shaft there's a beast of a water pump that boggles the mind when you try to figure out how they got it there. :huh It's the size of a car, has metal wheels, and sits on a flattened spot in a literal mountain of boulders. Those guys had to be tough... Next to this unnatural contraption sits a bucket of nails, but with the wooden bucket long since rotted away and mere rust holding the nails together in their cylandrical pile. :scratch
We traveled a good distance into this mine shaft, and eventually turned back, instead of climbing over a large cave-in and exploring further into the mountain. The rotted timbers and numerous minor cave-ins to this point are not confidence inspiring! :rofl
Fall is here, the leaves are yellow, and winter is only two weeks away. Gotta get out and enjoy the snowless mountains all we can, before we're forced to strap boards to our feet, pile on more clothes, and enjoy the snow!
John Borland
www.morffed.com
www.morffed.com
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