Friday, August 23, 2013

Snotel Reflections...a Precipitation gauge at Summit Lake, OR...
Gigantic snag near  Irish and  Taylor Lakes, Or.
Weathered "driftwood" at Irish and Taylor Lakes in Central Oregon...

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Nisqually Glacier on Mt. Rainier, WA...
Water splashes on the shore of Odell Lake, Or...
A bee works on a Cone Flower in Holland Meadows, Central Oregon...
 The small viewing portals above, each with the name of a geographic feature are a fascinating highlight of the Dee Wright Observatory's structure at the top of McKenzie Pass, open only June to October each year. It was completed as a CCC project in 1935.  Each opening looks directly at the geographical feature for which it is named and matches precisely the Dias pictured below that is mounted on the roof of the structure.  Built entirely of the lava from the surrounding flow, it is an impressive monument.

Interesting to note the casting by Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland, Or.-Which began as the Portland School of Trades in NW Portland. The school was coeducational after it's founding in 1908 until 1913 when the Girls' Departments were moved to the original Lincoln High School.  The school has always been somewhat ground-breaking participating in what was some of the first "GI Bill" education in WWI when it educated 50 disabled Soldiers.  
The School continues today as a Magnet School, with a lottery to determine entry as one of it's ~1100 students.
The entrance to the Dee Wright Observatory at the top of McKenzie Pass, Or...
The Moon setting over Mt. Rainier...
Moonrise at Aneroid Lake in the Wallowa Mountains, Or...
Above and below, Sunrise reflections on Aneroid Lake, Wallowas, Or.