Mount Magazine
August 8 & 27, 2006
Thanks to this obsession with visiting and
photographing those “places that must be seen”,
I’ve learned that the rising of the full moon is one of
the most awesome spectacles in nature. I’ve also
learned it’s a regularly occurring event that’s
fairly easy to experience. Once a month the full moon rises,
always in the East, always in the evening, and usually within a
half hour of sunset. What I have NOT learned is how to take a
picture that comes anywhere close to capturing the magic of a
full moon; but I continue to try.
I drove to Mount Magazine on Tuesday,
August 8 to hopefully catch the full moon rising from Bear
Hollow at precisely 8:09 PM, five minutes before sunset. The
katydids in the trees along the trail were making a loud
racket. When I reached Fringe Point and got out my compass I
realized the moon would come up behind the very mountain I was
standing on. I looked around for options and noticed farther up
the hollow a big bluff with a flat top. I continued up the
trail and guessed exactly where to turn right and walk down the
hill to the top of that bluff. (I later learned the spot was
named Bear Head Bluff).
Soon the moon rose above Fringe Point and I
went to work taking pictures. I had a new 400 mm lens that let
me zoom in close too.
I realized it had grown pretty dark and
I’d better start heading for the truck. I had gone to the
doctor that day because of a nasty cough that wouldn’t go
away, and was on some pretty strong antihistamines and
antibiotics. By the end of the short but steep walk up the hill
to the trail I thought I was going to throw up! I hadn’t
been on a real hike in three months, and the meds, the August
heat, and the exertion were teaming up against me. But once on
the flat trail I was OK.
I went on quite a few photo road trips in
August, usually not walking very far from the truck. On Sunday
morning the 27th I returned to Bear Hollow to meet the sunrise.
I intended on going to Inspiration Point, but mistakenly
stopped one bluff short. The pre-sunrise clouds were gorgeous
(pictured at the top of this page) yet the bluff top was so
small I could not maneuver to get a dead tree limb out of the
picture. A Serviceberry tree behind me had shed a lot of its
leaves, some of which were quite colorful.
I hiked over to the bluff I had found back
on the 8th, marked in on my GPS receiver, then hiked back to
the truck. Before heading home I drove around the top of the
mountain and noticed a patch of purple thistle flowers alive
with butterflies. I put an extension tube on my 400 mm lens,
which allowed me to zoom in on the butterflies from a distance
that did not disturb them. Still they moved around so much it
was tough to get any decent shots.
