Upper Canyon Creek Meadows
Upper Canyon Creek Meadows sits at the foot of the imposing eastern face of Three Fingered Jack and is one of my favorite Oregon Cascades locations. It is also a premier wildflower location that I try to visit annually at peak bloom. However, that peak is difficult to predict and will vary within a 6-ish week window. I guesstimate its timing through online Cascades-wide wildflower reports and by noting when some prominent mountain snowfields melt, as seen from our Bend house. And there are the added recent complications of having to dodge wildfire smoke and the need for a quota-restricted hiking permit. This year this all added up to my hiking in on the evening of August 7th. And...I found very good wildflowers, at their peak! And the mosquitos weren’t too bad, but the flies were horrible (most didn’t bite, but they were REALLY annoying).
After an hour of photo location scouting & a good night's sleep, I awoke to blue skies (no smoke, whew!) with slowly-building, light clouds. As a result, I had a perfect morning of photography. Though I had photographed a better wildflower year in 2015 (image gallery), I was very pleased with the morning's opportunities.
The weather forecast for the next day was for building thunderstorms, so I was on the fence about whether to stay for a 2nd night. A storm could make for dramatic photos and/or a miserable day. I rolled the dice and decided to stay. I'm glad that I did because a herd of 12 mountain goats (with 3 new kids) appeared that evening after all the day-hikers left (I had the entire upper meadows to myself, both nights). I had carried in my heavy telephoto lens just for this possibility, but I didn’t get any really great shots — they knew exactly how to put some goat-only-surmountable obstacle between themselves and my trying to get close!
At sunset the wind began to roar and between 10 & 11 PM there was a tremendous electrical storm right on top of me — 2-3 bolts of lightning per minute, many REALLY close (probably hitting Three Fingered Jack right above me). And a light, continuous rain fell for the rest of the night...not much sleep. Sunrise was completely clouded over and raining, so no photo opportunities. Fortunately it finally stopped raining around 8 AM, and I quickly broke camp since it felt like more storm was on its way. I got back to the car by late morning and within 5 minutes all hell broke loose — a huge downpour, with nearby lightning. Perfect timing!
When revisiting a location, it’s always interesting/surprising to me to see nature’s changes. It had been 3 years since my last visit here and this time I was surprised at the accelerated evolution of the upper meadow into a forest. In another generation or two it will be a completely different place, unless some catastrophic event takes place (like a HUGE avalanche). The upper meadow’s outlet stream has also seen a recent large flood flow that eroded away its stream banks, with much of the soil+wildflowers — thereby degrading a couple of favorite photo locations.
Image Gallery – Tap to view an individual image, then swipe to advance; use the top-right controls for auto play & other options (e.g, tap the curved arrow to open sharing options):
