writer. photographer. drinker of coffee.
From the top of Platåberget, Longyearbyen looks small. In the late summer evening fog, a few lights are on, but the sun won't "set" for at least a few more hours. The bare, greenish hills and mountains close in around the village, and we can hear the ships horns and a helicopter somewhere, but the…
In the movie "The Dark Crystal," there is an event that occurs every 999 years ("The Great Conjunction") in which the three suns converge and create a powerful beam of light. The light tore a rift in the earth, revealing the Dark Crystal. It also allowed the creation of the evil Skekses and burned up one of…
I wrote (and photographed) this for the Washington chapter of the Nature Conservancy last year. This event is coming up again soon, and we need it more than ever. The proposed federal budget for 2018 cuts billions in funding for conservation, climate, and scientific study in general. This sort of program - generating bipartisan, urban-rural, hunter-conservationist engagement…
I've often heard iterations of the phrase "the more you learn, the less you know" -- if you're human and you speak English, you've probably heard it, too. I suppose there are as many ways to interpret the phrase as there are letters comprising it, but the way I see it is that one who…
Question: Why do people love backpacking so much? And why haven't I done it yet? Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, it's more than a little silly that I haven't gone backpacking before. I've tent-camped a hundred places, hiked a hundred more, but never the two together. My encounters with backpacking have been purely…
Continue reading ➞ Olympic National Park: Shi Shi Beach Backpacking
In case you have never yet heard of Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey/Fidalgo island in NW Washington, let me enlighten you. It is one of the most engaging hikes I have ever been on, and I've now been there twice in a month! It's not difficult, only reaching about 500 or so feet of…
Good morning! It's a bright, cold day in Seattle, and the birds are loving it. They have already nearly decimated the seed I filled up on Sunday! I decided it was time to snap some real shots of these guys, not iPhone photos through a dingy kitchen window. I set up my camera and tripod…
Idaho came on fast! We bid the snowy bosoms farewell, going over an impressive mountain pass, then before we knew it we were in Idaho Falls. Bam. This time we learned, and called the Boise/Meridian KOA there first to make sure they were open. Then more of Idaho, until we reached Craters of the Moon…
Continue reading ➞ Approaching Home: Painted Hills & Craters
We woke up fairly early this morning again - I gotta admit, I'm tired. I have not slept hardly at all on this trip, and I am really looking forward to our real bed again. But anyway, back to reality: it snowed!! The first real, real snow. I was very excited. It was a light,…
Continue reading ➞ Grand Tetons II: In Which I Might As Well Be Elsa
Well, this has got to be the prettiest place we've been so far! The mountains are spectacular - stark white and crisp against the dark winter sky. The pass we were going to take over the Rockies was closed, so we took the scenic route - through Steamboat Springs and Rock Springs, where apparently my…
Anna A. Snook 