Category: Landscape
-
Painted Tunnel | Trinidad, WA | March 2020 This tunnel cuts through a wall of railroad fill that’s topped by busy east-west tracks. Years ago I sat in my truck and watched a train slowly chug over this portal on its way to big cities in the Midwest. What I thought was a cloud of…
-
Road Cut | Chelan Falls, WA | March 2020 Essentially the road curls along a wide ledge sliced into solid rock. As I marvel at the cut’s workmanship — precise, tidy — I’m also keenly aware that this high-up highway traces the fine line between cruising carefree and veering into the void. Some drivers would…
-
Bridge | Chelan Falls, WA | March 2020 Things that take us from here to there, that connect us across wide divides, give us reasons to hope. Airplanes and trains, all types of bridges, certain songs and speeches, a phone call from dear Aunt Betty — they all reach beyond where we stand to where…
-
Boulder | McNeil Canyon, WA | March 2020 I want to personally thank the glacier for its visit here 18,000 years ago and the gift it left on the ridge. Seen from the highway, this bus-sized boulder sits tiny in the distance but big in my imagination. The huge rock and its thousands of fellow…
-
Riding the Ripples | East Wenatchee, WA | February 2020 Resting Birds #3 | Turbulence barely ruffles a paddling goose. She sees the swells of a boat’s wake rolling her way and gives barely a hink or chittle (the murmurings of an unperturbed water bird). Wouldn’t it be nice to similarly
-
Waterfowl | Vantage, WA | February 2020 Resting Birds #2 | The Columbia River widens just above the I-90 bridge to become an attractive rest area for birds. No telling why they love it — food? safety? — but they don’t just float there, they frolic. They flap and splash like kids in a swimming…
-
Killdeer | Sunland, WA | February 2020 Resting Birds #1 |The list of birds I know on sight stretches to about, um, nine. Crows, robins, pigeons, hawks, eagles, geese, pelicans, flamingoes, ostriches, and we’re done. I’m always incredulous when dedicated birdwatchers tell me they traveled to Arizona and spotted 143 different species. Since nobody can…
IrwinFoto 