Mt Washington and Tuckerman Wildflowers

[J&J]

We headed up Tuck's on Sunday to climb Mt Washington with a threat of rain in the air. Well it did rain eventually but it was mostly light, moderately heavy for a short while, nothing ever so bad that you wanted off the trails.

We hadn't been up through Tuck's to the summit in a while and thought we should head up and revisit the ravine. This spring we were up during ski season to watch the skiers but only went as far as Lunch Rocks.

What we didn't expect (maybe we've just never hiked it this time of year before, hard to believe) was the profusion of wildflowers in the ravine proper. We counted 22 blooming flowers and only being mere amateurs we might have missed a few more. With the overcast skies shielding the bright sunshine on the flowers, the colors and shapes just popped right out. Absolutely beautiful.

On the summit we enjoyed slices of pizza and chilli, our reward for hiking on a semi-rainy day!

One last thing, as we were nearing the end of our hike at Pinkham's, we were asked by a USFS part-timer if we would like to participate in a survey they were doing on National Forest usage. We agreed. He choose the person who was closest to their last birthday as the determinant over who got to answer the questions. All he asked were general questions such as what did we do today? Hike, fish, view scenery? How many hours did we spend in the National Forest? That type of thing. We had a fun time answering the questions. Anyone else been asked to participate in a survey this year?

Enjoy the photographs!: www.jj1.smugmug.com

 

[darren]

Nice shots. I like the ones with the fireweed in the foreground. Where abouts on the trail did you take those?

What kind of camera did you use to take the shots? If you can attach a filter to the lens, a graduated neutral density filter would really help balance out the light sky and the darker foreground.

- darren

 

[J&J]

Darren--

I use a Canon S1 IS point & shoot, a semi-large, semi-sophisticated camera with lots of manual controls and a long lens but there is no way to use a neutral density filter or any other filter on this one.

The fireweed were high up in the ravine itself as we were climbing the headwall. Right now is a great time for the flowers up there.

 

[arghman]

Nice! Your pictures are better than mine when I hiked there on 7/15, at which time the arnica was just starting, and the bluets were still in bloom then. I need to go back there next year in late June if the trail opens earlier (this year it was closed until about 7/4).

(p.s. the goldenrod is probably not alpine goldenrod [Solidago cutleri] but rather mountain goldenrod [Solidago macrophylla]. see this thread)

(p.p.s. How do you rate smugmug? I considered it at one point, but I didn't like the name and they had lots of ala carte charges... I'm ambivalent about pbase and photobucket)

 

[J&J]

Argh,

You are absolutely right about the goldenrod. We identified the goldenrod as "mountain" but I spaced out and typed "alpine." Thanks for keeping us straight!

As far as Smugmug goes, I've only been using it for a few days now so don't have real strong feedback but so far I like it. It's easy and quick. I'll let you know better in a few months when I have more experience.

 

[king tut]

nice pics. I came down the ravine yesterday and the flowers were beautiful. It was a bit difficult walking down next to the waterfall w/ my big overnight pack, and trying not to stare at the flowers too much or i might fall down the headwall. I also saw lots of funky red mushrooms out in the presi's too.