49.4

So, the 9th of June turned out to be a bit colder than we might have expected out here in the NW. It was great to see, and I took full advantage by driving out the recently opened Cascade Lakes Highway to Sparks Lake, which was still mostly buried from winter's snows. The highway opens in early June and it is not totally uncommon to get snow at any time of year but, yeah.....it was pretty darn uncommon to see 6-8 INCHES of NEW SNOW in mid-June! Knowing the weather as I do, it's probably a once in ten-year event to have the highway opened for the summer season AND get this type of snowfall!

What a morning it was! I arrived at 1am in a snowstorm, slept for 2-3 hours in my truck and then got up at 4am in a snowstorm. It was blowing and snowing huge flakes and two inches per hour when I got up and I almost started packing it in and thinking about more sleep. Luckily though, I decided to stick it out and scout for compositions in this area I knew well, but the snow changed things quite a bit.

I finally hiked out to near this spot where I have shot before, looking towards where the peaks would be and the show started happening all around me as the low cleared out of there, just as I thought it would. Usually at the Cascade Passes you have all of an hour or so to capture this type of new snow and great light when a storm clears and for that to happen right at sunrise in the middle of June?!...well, I got pretty darn lucky here!

PS: I noticed all my new images lately getting quite a few "dislikes" but no critiques. Not that I expect it to happen, but understand that I am perfectly open to hearing any sort of critique on my images so let's not be childish about it, eh? You're free to say what you want here and I'll do the same. Thanks! I feel like the forums are more productive for everyone if they understand no one is going to take offense to a critique.