For the sake of completeness, here’s a “single B-side” from my Germany trip in 2019. After hiking back down into the valley from Reiter Alpe through the first snow of the season and dropping off Simon and Florian at their car, I continued to Berchtesgaden, where I had booked a room at a hotel for two nights – and I was definitely looking forward to a hot shower!
Weather
When I tag a post with “weather” it probably translated to “storm” most of the time… who doesn’t like nice dramatic clouds?
Reiter Alpe in the rain
A short but wet and unsuccessful attempt to summit Wagendrischlhorn at Reiter Alpe during my Germany trip – in rather unpleasant weather. With mildly entertaining wardrobe problems and solutions.
Monsoon in the Laguna Mountains
Last week a couple of my appointments all shifted forward by a day so I “took the day off” and after running some errands in the morning drove up into the Laguna Mountains, hoping for some fine weather and drama under an influx of monsoonal moisture – which is a warrant for towering clouds, thunderstorms and cloudbursts during the summer months here in Southern California.
Cedar Creek Falls, April 2019
Ever since I hiked to Cedar Creek Falls on a weekday morning with my friend Joe in 2015 and we completely beat the crowds (see A Piece of Eden from March 2015), it has become a bit of a personal challenge or perhaps “tradition” to try and repeat this experience – which is a bit of a reversal of my earlier take on this location. :-)
In 2016 I hiked it with my friend Fred. In 2017 I skipped it because of the extraordinary flow of both Cedar Creek and the San Diego River. The trail was officially closed during the best time of year to hike it – a ranger even wanted to shoo us away when we only wanted to hike down a little bit from Saddleback, to see Mildred Falls. In 2018 I hiked to the falls with my friend Peter and this year, I went with my hiking buddy Hans.
Mono Basin after an early winter storm
Over night, the incoming storm that had prevented me from reaching the summit of Mount Dana (and instead led me to a quite lovely loop hike including Dog Lake, Lembert Dome and the Tuolumne Meadows) had brought rain and snow to Yosemite, the Mono Basin and perhaps into western Nevada as well. The landscape looked fantastic with the clouds and the fresh snow – from a mere dusting at the transition between sagebrush steppe, and solid, gleaming white at the higher elevations. It was irresistible.
Monsoonal Moods at the Laguna Crest
Ten landscape photos from San Diego’s Laguna Mountains as monsoonal moisture reaches Southern California.
Stormy Windansea at Sunset
Returning to Windansea ten days after the sunny low-tide photos. It was raining more or less steadily – rather difficult conditions for long exposure photography because it’s next to impossible to keep the filter/lens free from raindrops, and boy do they show on wide angle photos…
Rainy Day Drive
Impressions from a rainy day early in April. I guess you know it by now – weather moving through San Diego County triggers an instant desire in me to get out. Dramatic clouds, light playing on the landscape, being in the fog (or rather, clouds) … I hope you can see why I love these conditions, in the photos below.
Cloudy Cardiff (3 photos)
Three photos from a brief evening visit to South Cardiff State Beach (Seaside State Beach) during a stormy and breezy day earlier in April. I don’t know where the last two weeks went, it feels like I made these photos three days ago, and I’ve built a terrible backlog of images to process and publish by now… (but what else is new?;-)