A Final Water Falling Over Things 2006 -- The "Lost" Retrospective

[regnaD kciN]

Earlier this year, I posted a series of "Water Falling Over Things 2006" threads. Among them were images from Ipsut Falls...



...and Ranger Falls...



...both found off the dirt road leading to Ipsut campground on the north face of Rainier.

This past month, record-setting rains caused unprecedented flooding throughout the Cascades. For only the third time in its history, Mount Rainier National Park has been completely shut down, and most of it may remain closed until spring or later.

The road to Ipsut was especially hard-hit. According to an outdoor writer for the Post-Intelligencer:

From the entrance, the first mile or so of road is in good shape, as if nothing had happened. The silence was thick and almost oppressive. When we passed a lone hiker, he seemed surprised to see us, as if we'd wakened him from a dream. We began to entertain hopes that maybe conditions weren't as bad as we had heard.

Wrong.

There it was. Or wasn't. The road, that is. It's simply gone, taken over by a channel of the river. A cairn marks the beginning of the washout, but experienced hikers can carry on. Rangers have flagged a route through the mess of toppled trees, piles of gravel and sand, which are interspersed with surviving road -- some good stretches, others undercut and eroded.

Everything was soaking wet and the humidity so high it was like hiking through a jungle. Despite the devastation, the place felt alive, like The Mountain was breathing and we were hiking through its lungs. We literally could not tell where the road had been -- it looked like the forest had been bombed.

More here.

There is now talk that the road and campground may never be rebuilt, making the hikes to Ipsut and Ranger much longer and more intense than when I went there last spring. It is possible that, in years to come, only the most dedicated mountain enthusiasts will see these falls.

Although I posted these photos before, I think it's appropriate to provide one final look at what may well become sights few will experience in the future.

[xiamiam]

1. extraordinarily beautiful...surreal and magical photos...yet the natural world right in front of us

truly seen and recorded...thank you...i just love these photos..wish i could go there...guess this is the next best thing for now..

[regnaD kciN]

9. The "next best thing for now"...

I feel the same way, as I'm not sure how soon, if ever, those trails will be accessible once again. Ipsut Falls was only 1/5th of a mile away from the campground's parking lot. If the Carbon River Road isn't rebuilt, that "hike" will go from a round-trip of .4 miles to one of over 10 miles.

Incidentally, here is an official National Park Service slideshow of the damage to Rainier. While it can't begin to compare with, say, the aftereffects of Katrina, it's shocking for me to see what has become of places which were the sites of easy and enjoyable visits less than five months ago. :-(

[jhain]

2. I am grateful to you

Thanks for taking the time to share them with us. Simply amazing..............

[Blue_In_AK]

3. Thanks, regnaD, these are gorgeous.

Did you all survive the blizzard okay?

[regnaD kciN]

8. The "blizzard" wasn't too bad here...

We only got a couple of inches or so -- the major problem was from extremely low temperatures (for this region) and iced-over roads rather than accumulation. However, on the first day of the storm itself, the combination of incoming blizzard and Monday Night Football in Seattle (each of which is guaranteed to turn Metro Transit into Metro NON-Transit), caused me to decide to drive into Seattle in late afternoon and pick up paisley at her office. We got to I-5 just as the storm hit, and the road went from bare to completely snowpacked in less than a mile. By the time we had reached the I-90 floating bridge, we had outrun the edge of the storm, and it was back to dry roads. However, when we reached Renton, the storm caught up with us, and we went through the same near-white-out conditions yet again for several miles, until we outran the storm once more. In any event, it seems like we made the right decision -- those co-workers who had relied on the buses, and took the 5:15 paisley would normally have been on, didn't make it here until 12:30 the next morning!

[F.Gordon]

4. Final?

:cry:

Oh. My bad... I see you said 2006. Your water falling over stuff pics have been some of the best photos posted in this group.

[priller]

5. Beautiful!

Especially like the next to last one, the closeup on the rocks.

[uppityperson]

6. beautiful, thank you for posting all these

[Whoa_Nelly]

7. All touchable photos...can feel the moment

Thanks, rk! :hi:

[ConsAreLiars]

10. Those are wonderful.

I like the first 8 best, or the last 8 -- hard to decide. Nature photography is a form of documentary. It lets the viewer know what we might have seen of the world if we had been there at that time and looked very clearly (Scientology connotations rejected) at what was in front of us. It helps us open our eyes, and you do this well.

[LynzM]

11. Beautiful, wow....

Thanks so much for sharing those; they're phenomenal!