Here is a link to today’s post on my new blog page, an article about North Cascades Goats.
Enchantments and Mountain Goats
It includes LOTS of images from North Cascades National Park and the Enchantments.
Please have a look and while you’re there you can sign up for our Newsletter and subscribe to the new Blog via Email.
The North Fork Bridge Creek Trail is one of the most scenic trails in the North Cascades National Park.
Goode Mountain, North Cascades National Park
Winding its way up the valley towards North Fork Meadows you will see fantastic views of Goode Mountain, the highest peak in the North Cascades National Park at 9,220 feet, rising over 6,000 feet from its footings, and almost 7,000 feet from the bottom of Bridge creek valley.
The often brushy trail is 7 miles long and gains about 1,700 feet from start to end. To get there hike 10 miles south on the Pacific Crest Trail from Highway 20 .
You’ll ford Grizzly Creek and then break out into the open with views like this one. 
To purchase prints of these images (as well as other stunning images of the North Cascades, visit our Photo Gallery.
Following the creek up towards the head of the valley into North Fork Meadows, Mount Logan looms above.
The lush green swards are filled with flowers, as well as hordes of flies in July and early August and often there are bears foraging along your way. 
No matter what the weather, you’ll get wet pushing through the brush.
Seven miles from the junction, the North Fork Trail ends at the base of a fantastic waterfall with Mount Logan as a spectacular back drop.
Camping is available at Grizzly Creek and Walker Park.
Or you can camp at the North Fork Camp, located at the trail Junction of the PCT and North Fork Trail.
If you would like information about a North Cascades Photo Tour, here is the place to start!
You have to backpack to these spots, no ‘drive and park’ camping! Each spot can be reached with one days hiking (although depending upon your fitness/motivation level Isolation Lake and Lakeview Ridge may require a two-day hike to get there). All 5 spots afford an absolutely jaw dropping, gob smacking, OMFG view from your tent that you will not soon forget. List out your favorite superlatives: all apply to these scenic camping spots.
Sahale Glacier Camp – North Cascades National Park
This just might be one of the best camping spots anywhere. The camp is situated atop 3 piles of glacial rubble at the toe of Sahale Glacier. Stone rings protect you from the wind. Goats often come for a visit. And the views! An ocean of jagged summits spread out before you… oh, and the toilet has the best view in the state!
Isolation Lake – Enchantments, Alpine Lakes Wilderness
Hiking up Aasgard Pass with a big pack is no picnic, but once you get up, Isolation Lake is there, waiting. This is a land of rocks and ice. The serrated peaks cut the sky and the crystal pure, icy cold lake, blue/green lake beckon. The images of the visit will stay imprinted in your brain.
Point of the Arches, Olympic National Park
Camping on the beach is always awesome: The ocean breeze, the sounds of the birds, the feel of the sand in between your toes, a fire at night. Point of the Arches has it all: surreal sea stacks jutting out of the Pacific, tide pools filled with critters and unbelievable sunsets.
Lakeview Ridge, Pasayten Wilderness
This is one of the highest points along the Pacific Crest Trail in Washington, located just south of the Canadian border. The hike in is sublime, from the trailhead at Slate Peak you will meander up Rock Pass and shoot through Windy Pass onto Lakeview Ridge. Covered with wildflowers and affording views in every direction, you will have a hard time leaving.
Snow Grass Flats, Goat Rocks Wilderness
If you want to have it all, this is the place to come camp! Endless meadows carpeted with wildflowers, views of both Mount Rainier AND Mount Adams, great camping spots and…what else is there? From the Snow Grass Flats trail head hike up, up, up, the higher you camp, the better the views. Don’t miss a visit to the Knife’s Edge, its close by.
Please take a minute and send me YOUR favorite camping spots, with a picture, if you can!
If you are interested in buying fine art prints or canvas wraps of any of these images, here is the link.
Last night I drove up the North Cascades Highway to do a Photo Tour Slide Show for campers at the Colonial Creek Camp ground in North Cascades National Park.
I got there a little early and tooled up a bit further to the Diablo Overlook. The green waters of Diablo Lake and the suns rays as the sunset approached were stunning.
Diablo Overlook
Last weekend I made the yearly sojourn up to Sahale Camp, in North Cascades National Park. The 6-mile hike in and up was very dry. The winter’s lack of snow fall has jumped the cycle of flowers and melting ahead a full month. Link to Buy Prints
Still, there were a few patches of flowers left. 
Clear skies did not lend to much of a sunset panorama,
Camped at Sahale Glacier Camp
but did present great opportunities for the night sky.
Here are 5 recent publications of articles I’ve written along with images.
This first link is to an article I wrote for photo students called Elements of Coolness. It was published by the company that does my canvas wrap printing, Canvas on Demand.
Surround Yourself – Canvas on Demand Lifestyle – Elements of Coolness
The Washington National Park Fund is a local non-profit raising money for Washington’s 3 National Parks: Mount Rainier, Olympic and North Cascades National Park.
Washington’s National Park Fund – Why I love Sahale Glacier Camp
The Nature Conservancy is a well-known organization dedicated to preserving wild lands. I have donated many images to their cause and am happy to be a part of their efforts.
The Nature Conservancy – Enchantments
Colchuck Lake, Enchantments, Alpine Lakes Wilderness
Cascade Loop Magazine is a local travel guide here in Northwest Washington. The loop is a wonderfully Scenic Drive encompassing the North Cascades, Lake Chelan, Skagit Valley and several other picturesque locations. I contribute images each year and was lucky to have an image on the cover of this years magazine.
Cascade Loop Magazine – Cover shot!
Amateur Astrophotography Magazine publishes a e-zine each month and here is an article and images of Night Sky Images.
Park Butte Lookout and Mount Baker
I hope you enjoy the articles and images and thank you for stopping by!
Start of the Copper Ridge trail
Recently I received a photo request from a magazine looking for images of Copper Ridge in North Cascades National Park.
When I receive a photo request for a location I’ve visited and have decent images, I go and review the folders and choose the shots that I feel best fit my idea of what the publication is looking for.
I will have a look at the original images and their edited versions, trying to decide if I may have learned any new Photoshop skills since my last editing session, and if so, I open the original raw files and start the editing process over, from the beginning, on each shot that I feel holds promise.
Ruth Mountain and Mount Shuksan
I have no idea whether any of the images will be chosen for publication, in fact the chances are against me, but its fun to revisit these fantastic places and relive my short visit to their majesty.
These images are all a part of that process. You can view these images, and more North Cascades Vistas in my gallery where they can be purchased as canvas prints and fine art prints.
North Cascades National Park, in Washington State, is one of the most rugged and least accessible National Parks in the lower 48. Lots of rain and thick flora make the mountains a sheer hell to bushwhack through. So, most travel in the back country is along trails. The northern section of the park has few trails really, there are large sections of mountain fastness that people very rarely visit.
Evening light at Copper Ridge
One very popular trail is along Copper Ridge. The trail starts at the Hannegan Trail head and crosses over Hannegan Pass and then heads up Copper Ridge. There is a campsite atop the ridge, Silesia Camp. Its small, only two or three tent pads. But the views are spectacular. From here you can see Mount Shuksan, and Ruth Mountain, straight across the valley and, a little to the west, Easy Ridge and Whatcom Peak in front of Mount Challenger, draped with glaciers, and just south of this massif, the needles of the fabled Picket Range jut skyward.
Its a cool campsite!
Silesia Camp
Just below the camp is small Egg Lake, with a few more tent pads. The trail heads northerly from here, to the top and the Copper Ridge Lookout. Rangers man the lookout through the summer and this is the highest point on the trail, at almost 7,000 feet.
From here the path descends down to the shore of aqua blue Copper Lake. This is the next spot where you can camp, but the views are lacking. Its a great place to stop for lunch and a swim!
The ridge hike follows the contours through forests and meadows, now and again popping out into the open for more jaw dropping vistas until, finally reaching its end, you plunge steeply down more than 4,500 feet to a ford of the Chilliwack River.
If you make the trip in early August you may be lucky enough to find yourself fording the river full of spawning salmon!
Whatcom Peak and Easy Ridge from Copper Ridge
Mount Shuksan from Copper Ridge Lookout
Sunset at Copper Ridge
Hiking along Copper Ridge
Silesia Camp Sunset
Copper Ridge Trail
Capturing sunset
Copper Ridge Panorama
Copper Ridge Lookout
Copper Lake
These last two images are from the end of the Copper Ridge trail, at the Chilliwack River and its confluence with Indian Creek. Here is where yo may have a salmon encounter!
Indian Creek
Indian Creek Salmon
There were many highlights photo-wise in 2014.
I had two images chosen for the cover of Northwest Travel Magazine. Not a bad way to start the year!
Northwest Travel May June 2014
NW Travel Magazine March-April 2014
This image of Sahale Glacier Camp in North Cascades National Park got a lot of coverage. It was chosen as an Honorable Mention and is on display in the Smithsonian Museum, in Washington DC.
Sunrise, Steven Mather Wilderness – North Cascades National Park
Hiking along Sahale Arm
Palouse Falls State Park
Mount Rainier from Crystal Mountain Resort
Park Butte Lookout and Mount Baker
Glacier Peak
Mount Adams and the Milky Way, Goat Rocks Wilderness
2015 is looking to be another great year.
I have a new schedule of photography classes coming up.
And new articles and images being published in the Mountaineers Magazine and Backpacker Magazine.
I will also be teaching photo classes through the North Cascades Institute, more on that soon.
Travel Plans for the new year include a Washington State Tour, the Enchantments, Olympic National Park, Glacier National Park and a nighttime Tour of Mountain Lookouts in the summer.
Thanks for being there and happy trails to you all!
Indian Creek Waterfall, North Cascades National Park
This mountain goat came early one morning to visit at Sahale Glacier Camp in North Cascades National Park. 
The tent sites are atop three big piles of rubble, from the glacier above.
The goat was hanging out looking for places where someone had peed so that he could get some salt!
The goat had a minimum safe distance of about 10 feet. He was happy to be that close, but if I took one step closer he would back off that same distance.
The large white mountain way in the distance here is Mount Rainier.
North Western Images - photos by Andy Porter 